Of Christmas Trees…

I was born in Oregon, where pine trees grow on trees.  Oh wait, that doesn’t quite work.  Well, anyway, pine trees are common there.

It made me quite spoiled. At Christmas, we went to a u-pick tree farm and were instantly surrounded by gorgeous trees and the unforgettable smell of pine hanging crisply in the air.

In Brazil, pine trees were almost as rare as white Christmases.

Eventually, I decided that we needed a tree of some kind.  Using a piece of Styrofoam I managed to cut a semblance of a pine tree that would slide into another half creating a lopsided white Christmas tree that didn’t fulfill our Oregonian expectations of what a Christmas tree should either look—or smell—like.

The next year I decided to try to create the same effect out of plywood.  I was making plans when my parents came home from the store with a fake pine tree causing a great deal of excitement.

It is, after all, hard to hang ornaments on a Styrofoam tree.

We took it out of the box and stacked the pipes before laying out the branches and sorting them according to size.  We put the metal ends of the branches into the holes on the green pipes and stood back to admire our work.

After years of not really having a tree at all there was something thrilling about seeing something that resembled a real tree.  It might lack the smell and be merely a collection of pipes, wire, and whatever it is they use to make the phony needles, but we were happy.

Thinking about real versus phony trees got me thinking about real versus phony Christmases.  In Brazil, Christmas didn’t feel real at first because we had none of the trappings with which we associated the holiday.  But the truth is that a real Christmas isn’t about fireplaces, snow, sleighs, or even real pine trees. 

It’s about celebrating our Lord’s birth.  He is the real Christmas.  The greatest gift.

I wish you a very blessed and merry Christmas, celebrating the real reason for the season.

Even if your tree is a lopsided one made of Styrofoam.

What is the weirdest Christmas you ever spent?

Did you find it made you more grateful for the true meaning of Christmas?