Christmas 2023

I LOVE Christmas. I love everything about Christmas. Obviously I love the Savior and appreciate the gift of His Atonement. I love all the ways we celebrate Christ’s birth and life: the lights, the giving, the family traditions, the music, the stories of redemption, the food, the decorations that hold so much symbolism. I am not ashamed to tell you that I begin listening to Christmas music in October and don’t stop until the end of January. This is partly because I sing with my church choir, and you can’t learn all the music unless you start that early, but I would listen to it in October anyway. When the days start getting cold and dark, I crave that joy and peace that Christmas music brings.

My favorite book is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, and I read or listen to it every single year. Sometimes I’ve even read it to my students (with a British accent). The way Scrooge is transformed by the Christmas spirit (or more accurately, spirits) fills me with joy every time. Plus it’s a great book full of similes and metaphors and lovely descriptions. Scrooge’s nephew delivers a wonderful explanation of how I feel about Christmas. “I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round–apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that–as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!”

I have many Christmas traditions, some are family traditions and some are my own. I have a Christmas village puzzle similar to one my mom has that we put together each year. I have also have a stained glass nativity puzzle that I added to my traditions last year. I love to bake fudge and cookies and share them. Okay, sometimes I’m not great at sharing them. Lasagna is a favorite Christmas meal in my family. Putting up the Christmas tree is a favorite tradition of mine. I love taking ornaments out of the boxes and remembering the year that I picked out that peppermint unicorn, or the dog in the Santa hat, or the gilded nativity. I have a lot of nativity ornaments. I also remember the friend or family member or who gave me certain ornaments.

Because I enjoy decorating, this year I put up five Christmas trees. Well, five and a half. There’s a small four-foot tree too. I’d like to share my trees with you today, on January 28th, which is not at all too late to be writing a Christmas post. That’s when I started writing this post, but true to my nature, I got distracted and didn’t finish it right away, so it is now March 4th and I am finally getting back to it. If you are offended by me writing about Christmas in March, no one is forcing you to keep reading.

This is my eclectic tree; the one full of memories. This tree contains all the ornaments I received as a child (we picked out an ornament every year). It also holds many ornaments my mom made from kits the first year my parents were married when they had no money, which my mom offered to me a few years ago when her tree became too full for them. I also have ornaments that were gifts, and some I’ve collected from trips, or remembrances of adventures. There are lots of dogs and sailboats. And there are some red, green, and gold balls to tie them all together and fill the empty spaces. As a side note, I made both the quilts in this picture. I could write a whole post about all the Christmas quilts I’ve made over the years.

This is my one real tree. I love the smell of real trees, but they are a bit messier, so I only do a real one in the dining room. This is the only tree I’ve taken down so far, because it was becoming a bit of a fire hazard and was dropping needles if you looked at it wrong. This is my snowflake tree. Snowflakes have special meaning to me. God has often communicated His love for me through strategically-timed snowstorms. That might sound funny, but it’s real to me and this is my blog. Many of these snowflakes have been gifts from friends and family who know I collect them. Last year a lady at church crocheted some doilies for me and included a couple of crocheted snowflakes. I made several of the beaded ones last year. I like the contrast of the pops of red. It also reminds me of Isaiah 1:18: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” The white doves are a new addition this year, a gift from my parents. I love that they add to the symbolism.

This tree is a new addition this year. I got a great deal on Facebook Marketplace. The theme of this tree is stars. Our theme from the church Christmas party this year was following the star, so many of the stars were used for decorations there first. Then I added red, gold, and purple ornaments because I like that color scheme. I saw an idea on Pinterest about star ornaments with the many names of Christ, and I might add something like that next year. It’s a work in progress.

Heading upstairs, this tree was also a Facebook Marketplace find. I didn’t realize until I picked it up that it is covered in glitter. Literally. It’s hard to see in the pictures, but the whole tree has been sprayed with glitter. It was a huge mess when I put it up, and it’ll be a mess again when I take it down, but I love it. The way glitter reflects light reminds me of how we can reflect Christ’s light though our actions and the way we treat others. This tree doesn’t have any special theme other than the jewel-tone color scheme that matches the carpet runner. Most of the ornaments came in boxed sets, but there are a few special ones, including two of my favorite nativity ornaments.

The first nativity ornament is from Hallmark and was one of my annual ornaments growing up. I just think it’s beautiful. I bought the second one during high school on a German Club trip to Chicago to visit a European style Christmas market. It’s made from half a walnut shell.

This is my angel tree. It’s in my bedroom. I don’t have a huge collection of angels, but enough for this smaller tree. It also has gold, pink and blue ornaments to coordinate with the room’s color scheme. The angel topper is admittedly a bit large; it was purchased for a larger tree. And next year I will probably trade this tree for a larger one, so it’ll be more proportional.

This is the four foot tree that sits on a trunk in a spare bedroom. Its theme is the 12 Days of Christmas. This one is pure whimsy. I found a set of wooden ornaments representing the 12 gifts and then added some other ornaments that seemed to go with the theme. There are ballerinas for the ladies dancing and peacocks for the calling birds. Having owned 4 peacocks, I can attest that they have quite a distinct and loud call. There’s an angel playing a flute for a piper piping. I’m still working on some of the birds and the lords a leaping. But I look forward to adding to this collection over the years.

That’s all the trees. Next year I’ll probably post some of my other decor, like my village of miniature houses, or the decor in my kitchen ( I bought a cool tree for the kitchen on sale after Christmas). I didn’t get all my kitchen decorations up this year because I was replacing my cabinets over Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. But I’ll leave you with what might be my favorite Christmas decoration of all.

This nativity is a copy of one my grandparents had when I was growing up. They had it in a stable with a spotlight on it, and it was pretty. Then they replaced it with lighted blow molds and gave their set to my parents. They put it in front of our house without a stable and the shadow projected onto the house was stunning. When I finally had my own house I wanted my own nativity set just like it, so my dad helped me cut it out with his scroll saw and jigsaw, and I believe my mom painted it for me. This is what Christmas is really about: sharing the light of Christ with others. Like Ebeneezer Scrooge, I vow to “honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” Not just by posting pictures of Christmas trees in March or listening to Christmas music in October, but by remembering to share Christ’s love with those around me whenever I can.