Christmas Eve or Christma Day, they’re the same for me. A time of fun, magic, surprises, love.
In my childhood, it meant a tree would go up in our living room, bright with lights and decorations, against a backdrop of the spectacular Mount Avila that dominated the Caracas skyline. It meant that my sister and I would often sneak out into the living room after our parents had gone to bed and peek at our presents and giggle and oh and ah about how beautifully our presents were wrapped. Our dog, a Dachshund named Cindy, usually came to inspect the gifts, too, because there were usually treats wrapped up for her.
For me, Christmas has never been a traditionally religious day, not even when my sister and I were dragged off to mass on Christmas Eve of Day. I liked the mass in Latin, such a mysterious and archaic language that no one but priests spoke. But I really resented being forced to sit there in an uncomfortable pew, listening to a sermon about sin and redemption. I rebelled early.
Even in the years before I met Rob, I always had a real tree wherever I lived, one that emitted that sweet scent of pine. I would experiment with lights and decorations and usually had a spot set for myself under the tree where I could read. Over the years, I started collecting special decorations – frogs, ornaments that had been in my family since my sister and I were kids, and then later, various types of ornaments collected in our travels.
When my first editor, Chris Cox, died, his sister sent me Chris’s special ornaments – a flute player from Colombia, a ceramic doll from Peru, and other ornaments that had been special to him. So every Christmas when I decorate our tree, I am reminded of Chris, my parents, my early childhood. There’s a silly snowman ornament on our tree which, I swear, must be 50 years old.Our newest special ornament is one that Megan painted of our Golden Retriever, Noah.
So for me, Christmas isn’t about religion or dogma, sin and redemption and guilt. It’s not not about angry gods or Adam and Eve and how anyone was born to save us from ourselves. It’s about how we’re shaped by our experiences, our stories, and how those stories change over time. And it’s about love and gratitude that we feel for the people who are closest to us, that we feel for ourselves and for those who have gone before us and those who will come after us. It’s about loving life in all its glorious permutations.
So from our household to yours, may your Christmas and new year be joyful, prosperous, and abundant!
I feel the same way. I love my ornaments. Merry Christmas, Trish, Rob and Megan.
I totally get the ornaments thing, we do it too, and find it very comforting to see our life among the branches. 🙂
Merry Christmas to you Trish and Rob! I hope you have a fabulous day. xx
Trish,
Robb,
May these days at the end of the year bring a sense of promises kept, dreams fulfilled and a longing desire to keep the innate fires of curiosity burning bright.
My brother and I have the hand me down ornaments from generations long past from this world. Right now, the two dolls from my mothers childhood are on the tree. They are from the early to mid 1930s. The fragile ornaments from the late 1800s/ very early 20th century do not come out much. If at all.
These ornaments tell a story,It keeps something alive. I do miss the stringing of popcorn and cranberries. We left them on the tree when it was time to put away the christmas things. It was a way of sharing with the little critters that hung around those brutal upstate New York winters. And since it was rural, putting the tree out was just that. We would just pull it outside the house a few yards and watch the birds feast on those morsels.
Be well,
Laurence
Lovely post.
Wishing all of the MacGregors a wonderful Christmas and beyond.
Same to you, Mike!
having always had the same perspective as you of the holiday called christmas, i so relate to your story also inasmuch as it closely resembles my own childhood and xmas- and like you, i also rebelled very early on – wishing you and yours peace love prosperity and good health – much love – j
Great to see you, Gypsy! Wishing you all the same!
Trish and Rob,
I recall visiting you both at the Tennis Club back in ’86. Sprinkling “Good Cheer” !
I remember those days!
Such a wonderful post, Trish, filled with love and cherished memories. I am blessed to have you in my life. May peace and all good things come your way this Christmas season. 🙂
Wishing you the very same, DJan!