Sunday, 8 December 2013

Putting up the Christmas Tree

This morning my wife and daughter are putting up the Christmas tree.  My attitude to Christmas decorations is best described as "Bah Humbug".  But I have come to realise that it isn't a dislike of Christmas or the clutter of the festive decorations, it's a dislike of the emptiness when, in a months time, everything is put away for another eleven months.  This dislike would, if I were on my own, prevent me putting up any seasonal decorations at all.  Well perhaps I would put up one bauble, perhaps!  We have a clash of ideas on the decorating of the tree.  My daughter would like the tree to be decorated in what she calls a tasteful fashion which means two colours with every bauble matching.  To me this is gives a very sanitised and clinical version of the festivities and doesn't correctly represent my feelings for the season.  I like a riot of clashing colours, the tree should be a glorious mishmash of bright colour.  My wife, as always has been diplomatic, and unbeknown to me has always chosen the decorations to match the carpet, but since our carpet is well patterned I haven't noticed until she mentioned it just now.  But the tree decoration also represents a repository of memories.  With each decoration comes a memory of where and when the bauble was bought or acquired.  Some of these memories go back well beyond the birth or our children back to my wife's childhood.  Perhaps this is what a Christmas tree really represents, a link with the our past. What ever it means I am enjoying sitting here listening to the banter and laughter passing between them, they are also gently taking the mickey out of me as they work.  Happy times!

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