Deck the Halls

When I was a child, my grandmother sent me a freshly cut evergreen tree from her farm in Nova Scotia, Canada each December. It would come wrapped in brown paper and tied with string. It was very small and by the time I was eight years old, I was taller than the tree. The tree smelled wonderful and we decorated it with ornaments that we made ourselves. My friends and I would string popcorn and make chains of paper loops.

By the time I was a teenager, I was having a lot of injuries to my ankles. During those years I was at home most days. Repeated bleeds into my ankle joints made it impossible for me to climb the steep steps in my high school. While my peers were going to dances and sports events, I spent a lot of my free time doing craft projects. Each autumn, I designed and constructed holiday decorations with a new color scheme for our tree. It gave me great joy to create them. There was the Christmas of the red silk and gold felt, the year of sugarplum purple with white sparkles, and the royal blue metallic silver combination.

I carried the tradition of making tree decorations into my adult life. The freshly cut evergreen tree that is in my living room this year came from a local nursery. It is covered with decorations made by my family, friends, and me. Each decoration holds a special memory.