I can always remember the excitement when the day came in December to go pick up the Christmas tree. None of us seemed to agree on the same tree at first, but we always managed to come home with a beautiful under-five-foot tree. Why is the scent of a pinetree so special that it can make both children and adults feel so excited and yet so peaceful?
It was our family tradition to then set up and decorate the tree. We would bring out this big Arnotts assorted biscuits tin and fight for our favorite ornaments to hang on the tree. Each year we added more handmade masterpieces to this collection but somehow the tin was always big enough. When we had done the tree to our satisfaction we would then rush to put the many presents under it. We would spend many hours carefully wrapping the presents and these were usually so beautiful that we could spend many evenings just admiring them. Oh what fun then to just tear the wrapping paper to shreds on Christmas morning to see what the ‘fat man’ had given us.
We loved to creep down the big old wooden staircase after bedtime just to see and smell the food being prepared in the big kitchen. There was always a turkey roasting in the oven and huge platters of pies and cakes on the kitchen table. Then someone would discover us and we would run back upstairs so fast the wooden stairs would creak loudly in protest.
Having five siblings and many cousins of around the same age Christmas was always a very special time of the year. Of course some years we spent Christmas in Sabah with our cousins and these were just as fun. Then we grew up and things changed. I remember the fist Christmas in my own house. Oh, how exciting that was, coming home with a plastic tree from Parkson ! My friend and I had each bought a tree that the salesman had told us was very easy to set up – just follow the instruction! I had chosen twenty green glass balls to hang on my tree while my friend had twenty purple glass balls.
I was working for an airline then and suddenly Christmas wasn’t a traditional home with the family affair anymore. Of course I loved Midnight Mass with my friends but we were doing that a long way from home. We celebrated our Christmases in Hong Kong, London and Amsterdam or wherever we were at that time. The Christmas mass in Amsterdam was rather special for me as the church was really very old, and the priests wore costumes out of a Hollywood movie (or so it seemed to me!) and lit incense which added to the unreal atmosphere. Of course we didn’t understand a word the whole time as the priests spoke in Dutch (or some ancient language!) Christmas dinners were at hotels and although the food was just as good we felt something missing. I guess this is the time of the year when one wants to be home with the family.
Things have come full circle now that I am retired. Christmas means tradition, family and as one gets older I guess one wants to turn back the clock and bring back memories of the past. Christmas means so much more to me now than all the celebration, presents under the tree, food and parties. It is good to be home with family, all the little children and the pets. As we listen to Christmas songs on the radio I remember this line:
‘Mary, did you know your baby boy would one day redeem us?”
This Christmas I pray that more people around the World find for themselves, the true meaning and spirit of Christmas. Happy Holidays
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