Changing Old Traditions.

For as far back as I can remember at Home, we always had a live Christmas Tree when possible. For as long as I lived at home it was the Boy’s job every year, to go down and around the paddocks somewhere and Cut down a native Cypress type of tree. I have no idea what its proper name was but in our family it was always call a “wild Cherry tree” although as I said it looked more like a Cypress than an actual cherry tree. In latter years when a decent “wild Cherry tree “ became too hard to find Mum went over to live Pine trees and only later when the kids moved out, she turned to an artificial tree.

When I married and moved out we started out with a live tree each year but with the various moves over the years as we prepared for Missionary service, we too went artificial for a while.

We did go back to a live trees for a while when we moved to Transkei (South Africa). Yes, we had live trees right at our first Christmas there. Even if our first Christmas tree there, within weeks of arriving, was only a live potted Philodendron, it was quite effective when lit up and decorated. Later we also progressed to live pines, and finally when they became too scarce over there, back to artificial.

Upon returning to Oz, 6 Christmases back with this one, our first-born demanded we go back to live trees, which we did, and she is still doing this year.

We however have gone over to artificial again, even though live trees are still readily available. But this year we were looking for a smaller, less messy tree and so settled on a Smallish artificial one. A cheap and nasty one at that too! However with a bit of fake snow, and just the lights on it is starting to look reasonably presentable.

As hinted in previous blogs my artistic skills when coming to decorate things, is pretty basic, and my part of decorating the tree, after setting it up has always been relegated to throwing a few strings of lights around it and leaving it to the Girls to hang the baubles and tinsel on it.

Well this year they have their own tree to do, and we ours. So there needs to be a change in our decorating traditions this year.

We are also having a luncheon fellowship from the Church here next Sunday with about 30+ men, women and children in attendance, plus a few blow ins before the event and so this year I have decided to let all our visitors have a part in decorating our “family “tree.

My intention is to ask everyone to put at least one decoration each on the tree. Both helping to decorate it and to symbolise them as part of our inner circle even if not immediate family.

How about you? Don’t worry about what type of tree you have but how are you decorating it?

How will you decorate your Tree this year and who will you include in your inner circle of Family? Christmas is supposed to be a time for family, so will you allow “family” even if in the broadest sense of the word, to be part of your Tree? Will you this year change Tradition to allow others into your inner “family” circle? Or will you keep others at arm’s length this Christmas? Over to you for your reflection.