The first step in decorating the Christmas tree is to have a love for Christmas itself. Christmas is celebrating the fact that Jesus came into the world. No one actually knows what date Jesus was born, but that is not important to me. What is important is that He came. I know all the stuff about pagan rites and the feast of saturnalia, but I don't care; and what's more, I don't think my Father in Heaven cares. He knows why I'm doing it, and He is totally OK with it.
While I'm decorating my tree, I remember the Christmases of my childhood, how I waited so long for the holiday to arrive and how simple gifts gave me a thrill. I remember the plastic nativity set that my parents had. My sister recently found one like it online and gave it to me for a Christmas gift a few Christmases ago.
I remember my Grandmother's house in Ennis, TX, the sweet musty smell of the old wallpaper and the creaking of the floor boards and the aluminum tree. We slept under heavy layers of homemade quilts on Christmas Eve and didn't care that the gas stove hadn't been lit yet when Christmas morning arrived. We lept out of bed with excitement and awakened our parents, because we weren't allowed to touch the stockings until they were there. Somehow during the night my folks had tiptoed into the living room past our sofa bed and had loaded each stocking with a big apple, a huge orange and a giant peppermint stick like we used to be able to buy in the school cafeteria for 5 cents. There was always a small bottle of Jergen's lotion and little items that increased the air of mystery. When all our other relatives had arrived and we had feasted on turkey, cornbread dressing, green beans, sweet potatoes, congealed salads and Aunt Demie's pecan pie, we would open the gifts under that aluminum tree. Before I new about ordering by mail, I often wondered how my grandmother, who didn't drive, found such unique gifts. Aunt Olean had ordered them and they both had carefully wrapped them...
So in order to decorate a Christmas tree properly you need to recall your pleasant memories of Christmas. Your heart has to be in it, or your tree is going to look like Charlie Brown's because you are uninspired; or it will look professionally stiff and impersonal.
Selecting your tree is the next step. About ten years ago, Wal-Mart had a 9' pre-lit tree on a Black Friday sale for $29! I was up in the dark that morning driving over to make sure I got one. Real trees are a wonderful touch and their fragrance will bring back memories faster than visual stimulation, but my husband is allergic to them, so we opt for artificial. We place our tree on a coffee table that is approximately 2 feet high that makes the tree almost 12' high with its stand. This leaves plenty of room for the gifts and makes it harder for toddlers to grab the ornaments and eat them.
We cover the coffee table with an heirloom quilt made by my paternal grandmother. The quilt is backed with red satin which matches a tree skirt we bought at Sam's Club after Christmas last year. The tree stands in a place near the apex of the ceiling in our family room. It's a central location where we can look at it from the kitchen and the family room. From the fourth week in November, which is American Thanksgiving, until January 2 the day after New Year's, our tree is the centerpiece of our home's decor during the holiday season.
Joining the tree's sections is my husband's job. He fetches a tall ladder from the basement and climbs up. Some years we have an angel on top and other years we have a star. If you are able to wire the decorations on the top section and also place the star on the top branch before you put the top section on the tree, you will have an easier time. If not, I hope you are not afraid of heights!
The next step is to accumulate ornaments. I'm not a minimalist. I love gaudy, bauble-encrusted trees. I probably have over 1000 ornaments which I have accumulated during 40 years of marriage. Some of my ornaments are over fifty years old and hark back to my childhood in the 50's. For some reason I like apples, stars and angels, so I seize the opportunity to buy them wherever I can. I bought three garlands of large red apples in Staunton, VA over eleven years ago when we were there on an outreach to a prison nearby. When I hang those on the tree, I remember those outreaches, the prisoners and their hunger for God. Those memories warm my heart.
I have chosen a red and gold color scheme for most of the ornaments for my tree, because I love red and because red is dramatic. Sticking with a color scheme makes the tree visually pleasing. Without a color scheme the tree will look hodge podge and will lose impact. The colors have the power to anchor the decor and homogenize the hundreds of different ornaments into a whole.
Before I put the ornaments on, I hang the apple garlands next, which divide the tree into four sections making ornament placement easier. I start from the top left and slant the garlands to the lower right. Since our tree stands at a wall, we decorate all the visible angles, so the garlands only look like they encircle the entire tree. The mirror on the wall behind the tree lends the illusion of depth to the room reflecting ornaments and lights, so I make sure that I decorate the portion that shows in the mirror.
Next I hang the gold and red balls and individual apples on the branches from top to bottom. Almost every branch that is visible has at least one ornament. The fewer bare branches, the more "encrusted" your tree will look. Arrange and rearrange ornaments in order to achieve balance. Don't put all the red in one section, for example. Sprinkle the colors you have chosen evenly distributing them over the surface of the tree. Fill gaps between branches with ornaments large enough to fill the "holes." Step back and look from a distance to see these gaps and promptly fill them. Balance the decorations on the tree by hanging smaller ornaments near the top with larger ones near the bottom. Placing ornaments inside the branches gives the tree depth. Once the color theme is established with at least 80% of the ornaments, the tree can sustain multicolored ornaments which will blend in rather than detract.
After the balls are on, I open my treasure box of keepsake ornaments which include ornaments that Sarah and Billy made when they were little. One is a scene of Mary and Joseph's flight into Egypt with Jesus surrounded by a toothpick frame. Another is a picture of my son when he was a toddler framed in a styrofoam ball. I save every ornament someone gives me. My friend, Pam, has given me several papier mache angels. I have ornaments that are favors from parties and from banquets, ornaments on sale after Christmas at 90% off from Jo-Ann Fabrics! I also buy ornaments from souvenir shops and Christmas stores in places I visit. I have collected ornaments from places like Multnomah Falls in Oregon, Alaska, Yosemite and Texas. One year my cousin made me an ornament sewn in the shape of Texas with "Merry Christmas, Y'all" embroidered on it. In my travels abroad in years past, I collected ornaments from markets in England and Germany. My mother crocheted a set of white snowflakes for me over 35 years ago. I also collect nativity ornaments. One tiny scene of the town of Bethlehem is from my childhood when it was a receptacle for a large colored bulb illuminating the star. It was my mother-in-law, Gladys Fish, who sold me on white miniature lights in the '70's. They've been my preference ever since. Each one of the ornaments recalls a pleasant memory of a person or an event that meant something to me and our family.
This year I decorated our tree slowly during three days before Thanksgiving. It was cold enough, so I turned on the fireplace. Taking my time gave me the ability to relax and to remember the wonder of previous holidays and think about the millions of other people all over the world who were decorating their trees, too. It also gave me time to find all those ornamentless "holes" and fill them so that they don't annoy me for six weeks.
Each year I thank God that I'm able to take the Christmas decorations out one more time. My mother used to wonder if everyone in the family would be together the next holiday when we took those boxes out of the closet again. One by one, they eventually were all gone except my sister and are now celebrating Christmas in heaven. In 2009 I suffered a brain hemorrhage. Although I walked out of the hospital in four days, it took months to completely recover. During that time, I wondered if I would ever live to see my Christmas decorations again. I did, and now I'm thankful more than ever for life and God's gift of celebrations.
I believe Christmas is a gift from God. He sent His only Son into the world to be the sacrifice for each person's sins so that we might live through Him. God does not require celebration as a duty anymore, but I believe that it pleases Him to see us finding what He has done for us enough cause to alter the courses of our lives and celebrate His goodness.
While I don't believe in ignoring the poor or in spending the household into debt at Christmastime, it is important to me to take this season to demonstrate a little bit of the same love that God has for us. Christmas is a time to honor Him and to honor my family and friends by making my home into a place full of wonder and joy, full of the same kind of happiness that created the memories that are dear to me; memories of a family who loved me enough to tell me about Jesus.
Your Christmas tree doesn't have to look like mine, it just has to be decorated out of love first for God and also for people. If love is your motive, your tree will become a unique reflection of your life, the way you love your family and the way you celebrate the holiday known as Christmas.
