I’ve always admired people who have a Christmas tree in every room. I personally find it far too difficult and time-consuming to put up more than one tree, although I have been known to put up maybe one big tree and a couple of small ones. After all, we don’t usually finish our tree until the day or two before Christmas. We start early enough–don’t be mistaken. The day after Thanksgiving, I’m usually banging my head on the attic rafters while the rest of the world risks being trampled to death in public places. Bill drags out the Christmas decor (less and less each year, at my request), and we get the pre-lit tree put up and re-lit. But we don’t always put the ornaments on it just yet.
This tradition started about three years ago when Hunter was just a wee one. With a two-year-old and a vomiting baby, I just couldn’t bear the thought of decorating the tree with fancy ornaments and then roping it off with a baby gate, or, worse, leaving it out in the open and spending every waking minute scolding curious fingers. And with Will being such a project-lover (where did he get that from?), I thought it would be a good idea if we spent our Christmas season at the table making indestructable Christmas tree ornaments. Well, some of them are fairly destructable, but it that happens, we just plunk them in the trash can! He absolutely loved the season of perpetual projects, and our tree became a source of great pride and joy for both of us. When Christmas finally arrived, we could stand back and look at all of our handiwork, knowing we had done it all together. It was wonderful, and Will had free reign over decorating the tree and touching it afterwards.
The next year, we actually downsized and put up only a 4 1/2 foot tree on top of the console table to keep Hunter’s mischievous little self out of it. We did a mixture of the glass ornaments that Will adores and our handy dandy homemade ornaments. Then in 2007, we went back to the big tree and filled it with all of the ornaments we had made two years prior, and the kids developed the neat little game of UNdecorating and REdecorating the tree. All day, every day. It was cool at first. It gave them something to do together besides argue. But then it just became one more mess for me to manage. We decided to let that tradition fade right along with the construction paper chain.
So we come down to this year. Will is in school, and man–that takes it out of us. For a couple of minutes I even thought about leaving the big tree in the attic again. Since we traveled to my parents for Thanksgiving (yes, 20 hours one way), we went ahead and got the tree up before turkey day and let it sit there dressed with nothing but lights for a couple of weeks. I thought it was beautiful that way. One day…
When we got home, I was faced with the big decision. Do we put the glass ornaments and shoo the kids away all month? or try to salvage the handmade ones? By this time, those original handmade ornaments weren’t looking too adorable any more. We went for a happy medium, reusing the best of the old ones and making a bunch more new ones. And what fun memories we’ve made in the process! It started with an idea for a felt mitten garland I found in the Land of Nod catalog. I bought a truckload of felt while on a fabric shopping trip an hour away, and one night I sat up until the wee hours cutting out twenty-something brightly-colored mitten shapes and coordinating stripes and shapes to decorate them with. Then the kids and I spent Veteran’s Day gluing them together and then gluing buttons all over them. I sewed on ribbon hangers and let them hang them all over the tree.
The only problem was that Will really likes the glitz and glamour. Felt just doesn’t sparkle enough for him. So I picked up a cheap box of shatterproof silver balls, half of them solid and half of them glittery, and together we tied red and green grosgrain ribbon on them for hangers. Even after adding the bright red celophane lollipops we made in ‘05, the tree was still looking a bit bare. So we took the plunge and started on a paper chain that took us all the way until yesterday to complete. The whole family has been in on the process, and on any given day of the week, you might have found two or more of us sitting around sharing double-sided tape and strips of brightly-colored cardstock. It was great fun. For me and the kids anyway. 
Now our 2008 tree is completely finished, and I must say, it is our cutest one yet. With all of the bright pinks and oranges, yellows and blues mixed with traditional red and lime green, it has a flavor all it’s own. The best part about it is that it’s chock-full of memories from the precious little hands that made it. I cry every other time I look at it, because I’m already sad about the gaping hole that will be left one day when the little hands have grown big and there’s noone here to cut and glue with me. I know that raising young children is only for a season, and despite the hardships and challenges, what a joyful season it is. I thank God every day for choosing to give me this joyous season of motherhood. May our little felt mittens be a symbol of our praise as we lift our hearts and hands to worship the King of Kings this Christmas season.
