The Magic Christmas Tree

Yesterday, I hauled my little Christmas tree up from the basement and decided to trim it. I haven’t had a large tree for a few years because I don’t have room in my little cottage. I have always liked putting up my tree early because December is a special month to me.  My birthday, my wedding anniversary and Christmas all fall in December.   

This year I was feeling frustrated because I plugged the tree in and part of a light strand refused to work .  I have never had the patience to figure out why a strand of lights isn’t working, so I decided to take all of them off and buy a couple of new ones.  It took two hours to unwind all of the tangled wires.  By the time I finished I was disheartened and really wondering why I bothered to put up a tree at all.  I don’t have holiday gatherings anymore because the family has grown too large to have all of them at my cottage, so my children host them now.  Not many people really get to see my decorations anyway.  I had forgotten the point of it, but I had already started and grudgingly decided to finish.  Once again, the magic begins.

As I unwrap each ornament and place it on the little tree, the memories come flooding back.  Time compresses.  All of the years and all of love are contained in that moment.  I am a small child in my blue dress hiding with excitement in the little knotty pine den of our home with my brother.  We can hear Santa stomping around in our living room leaving gifts and never guess that it is our grandpa.

Then I am a young woman singing my heart out with my dear husband in the choir at that long ago lovely church on Christmas Eve.  The beauty of those soaring voices brings me to tears.  In this perfect time warp, my husband and I never lose sight of the importance of our love. We don’t allow the years to diminish our ability to understand what really matters.

I see my children at all ages, their happy faces glowing by the lights of so many Christmas trees, opening gifts and sharing holiday feasts and handmade cookies in candlelit rooms filled with cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.  I play Christmas carols on the piano while my sweet family sings and for those few moments all is so very perfect in my world.  

The snow is softly falling deep and silent outside our window and we see Santa walk across the front yard in the moonlight.  He slowly leans over and leaves a big bag of candy and gifts on the ground.  He waves through the window and trudges on out of sight.  My little children are thrilled beyond belief to have seen him.  Then suddenly Santa is there in my oldest son’s living room and my grandchildren are dancing around him with excitement and I am Nana to 5 grandchildren.

My dear mom, dad and brother all long gone, are here with me again.  They are meeting my grandchildren and I am child, mother and grandmother, all at the same time.  All of my beloved dogs are also there.  Belle, Kenya, Raven and Baxter are all happily unwrapping a present with their teeth that they each hold in their paws as they spread bits of paper on the floor. 

All of the reasons for sadness and misunderstanding over all of the many years have been forgotten and the room glows with love as my family and extended family of all ages and all times are impossibly here together for one magical moment. 

I hang the ornaments on the tree as they gather around me.  Ornaments my children made for me when they were small, hang next to the ones my grandchildren painted last year.  There are several special ornaments from old friends and neighbors who came and went in my life and as I look up, I see that they are here as well.  I don’t know how this little cottage can contain all of these people, places, years and love, but somehow for a brief moment in time.  It does.  And that is the very real magic of my little Christmas tree.


This happens to be my favorite Christmas song for trimming my tree.  Enjoy, Dear Friends!