EssayChristmasOrnaments

Christmas Ornaments

Ornaments tell stories of childhoods, times long past, and friends long gone from our lives. My parent’s tree is filled with memories from my own childhood, and those items have remained with them, as well they should. My tree is full of my own children’s spirits, and I cherish every last thing they’ve crafted.

There’s a small pine cone glued to a wooden base and sprinkled with glitter, made by my oldest son in preschool, when he was three years old. It’s one of my favorites, partly because it’s such a simple and lovely design, holding up well over the years, but also because it helps me recall that special time when he was young and I was a new mother. How quickly that moment slipped from me. There’s a lovely clear ball given to my youngest daughter from her swimming teacher; in the center is a photo of her and the other children in her class. Besides an elegant, well-crafted ornament, it also reminds me of how, at the age of four or five, my daughter loved to swim, how strong she was in the water, and the unfettered enthusiasm she had for this activity. As my children have grown, I’ve begun to recognize these moments as rare and full of real and complete joy.

There’s the ornament that commemorates the birth of my younger son. Each of my children has such an ornament, but I must confess that his is my favorite. It’s a bear with a pacifier in his mouth and my son’s name and birthdate imprinted clearly in red ink on his belly—the other’s are difficult to read because they were all engraved. My son was born big and cuddly, right on time (whereas the others came early), and my heart was attached to his from the beginning. That his first five years were spent struggling with a heart ailment only served to strengthen my devotion to him. Every day after has been a gift and a blessing, but also filled with a tinge of regret as those bonds must be loosened lest he bolt completely from my life in his quest for independence.

There’s the simple ceramic cross my oldest daughter painted when she was quite young. It’s yellow with purple dots. She’s quite artistic and inventive and even then enjoyed the act of creation. She also takes great joy in the spiritual side of her life, more than any of her siblings, and she’s expressed this through her art. The cross is also one of my favorite ornaments.

There are the dog ornaments, several especially for our deceased Dalmatian Sparky. It makes all of us feel better to have him present during the Christmas holidays. There are the ornaments from my close friends while we raised our children together. In any other situation we might never have been comrades, but sharing the experience of watching our offspring grow creates a connection like no other. While I’m not a very crafty person, there are two sets of ornaments I stitched together while I was in graduate school. They were my therapy during a very stressful time; they remind me that I persevered through my fears and succeeded. And then there’s simply the ornaments that were purchased because something about them caught my eye—the color, the shape, the absolute loveliness of them.

A Christmas tree is more than a colorful decoration under which Santa leaves his presents; it’s a tree that’s alive with the pulse of the people living in the home, alive with memories that keep the family together.