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(A young woman, clad in blue jeans, a sweatshirt, and floppy, fuzzy slippers, steadies herself on all fours, half-in and half-out of a hallway closet; meanwhile, Christmas carols can be heard playing softly in the background.)
December 15th, huh? 10 days 'til Christmas and I still have so much to do -- shopping for last minute gifts, a house to clean, decorations to put up. Ugh! I really do hate this time of the year. Don't get me wrong. I love Christmas, especially the presents. It's just the "getting ready" part that's such a pain.
- "La, la, la,la, making spirits bright"... I know that box is in here somewhere.. . (she worms her way farther into the closet, digging through box after box, until she finally emerges, dust-covered but triumphant, with a box marked "Ornaments- -Fragile. Okay, we're in business. (She marches down the hallway and into the living room where a peaked looking, naked evergreen greets her arrival. It's artificial, though. She's been allergic to evergreens since childhood.)
Great! Hubby put all the lights on for me as well. All I have to is trim it with the ornaments, garland, and icicles. Remember: no ornaments on the bottom section of the tree. Last year doggie knocked a half a dozen of them off, and all but one broke. Let's see... (With scissors in hand, she cuts open the taped up box and begins to pull out smaller boxes, each one housing its own little story, as she soon discovers. After 10 minutes or so, she has the entire contents of the larger box spread out all over the living room floor.)
Now, let's plan this out methodically. Small ones up top, medium-sized ones around the middle, and the biggest ones toward the bottom. Last year I just slapped them on any old place, and the tree ended up being top-heavy, and I spread them out too much, so there were a few bare spots as well. (She begins taking ornaments out of their respective boxes.)
Wow! I had forgotten about this one. (Tiny blue oblongshaped balls tumble out of the tissue paper as she pulls a small bird's nest glued to a clothespin out of a box.) I think Aunt made these for us when we were ten, What's the legend she told us? Oh yes, it's Swedish. "Put a bird's nest on your tree, and you will have a new year full of health and happiness." Ooo, ooo! This one too (she exclaims pulling out a second ornament, a tiny little creche, from it's box). From the Primary Department of your church, 1963. (She giggles.) Mrs.-; I sure do remember her Sunday school class.
Boy how she made us work to memorize our Bible verses. But we learned them. I still even remember a few ... My ceramic angel! Now this one brings back to me great memories. David what-was-his-name? My "sweetheart" from kindergarten. He was so cute when he gave me this for my Christmas present ... and my Ballet Shoes from Trish!... and baby mouse from Gretchen! We sure had a few fun-filled Christmas parties in our dorm room in college ... Oh, and remember when we (she's thinking about her brother now) got into mother's glue and glitter and painted our faces up like clowns the year she was making these styrofoam ball ornaments. (She laughs out loud. Then she opens a very old and tattered box to discover the tiny little wooden angle tucked all warm inside.) Grandma....
(As she tugs on the little string attached
to the ornament to pull it out of the box, she sits down on the
floor and begins to dream about that Christmas at Grandma's house.
She was only six years old.)... "Now remember," Grandma
said to me, "this is the 'littlest angel'. When we have finished
hanging all the other ornaments on the tree, we place her on the
highest branch. She sits way up there so she can be very close
to God, in case he needs her do something for Him" I giggled
"Grandma, why is she so special?" I asked "Because
she is so little, dear, she needs to be as close to her father
as she can be. He takes extra special care of her. Just like we
all take very special care of you," said grandmother.
(The ring of the doorbell gently awakens
her from her happy memory.) Oh goodness! It's the paperboy. It's
four o'clock. I haven't even finished decorating the tree and
I need to get dinner ready in one hour. I better get moving (she
says as she answers the door, retrieves the newspaper from the
little boy, and sends him off with his Christmas bonus- -five
dollars and a book of gift certificates to
McDonalds.)
What was I thinking about? (she says to herself, as she hangs the tiny little angle on the top of her tree.) Time to fix dinner.
A Closing Thought: As we all rush forward into this, the busiest time of the year with shopping, and cooking, and cleaning, and entertaining, let us remember as the young woman in this tale remembered. When we ready ourselves to decorate the house, let us not hurry as we hang our ornaments on the tree. Each one tells a story, and our tree is as the pages of a history book -- the story of our family's life. Remember this, this year and think about your own history as it stands in front of you all shiny and twinkling with the warm glow of holiday cheer and of friendly remembrances.
Cheryl Weller Beck was editor of Twentieth Century History
of Beaver County and teaches English at the college level.