Undecorating

I undecorated the Christmas tree today. It was sad, not always fun to take cheer out of the house, but necessary. Christmas can't last forever. So, for now, our cheer is stored in plastic bins, to be put away till next season. They will sit on a shelf in the basement, dormant, for 11 months, until they come to life again next December.

My three year old son helped me take ornaments off the tree. Putting up the tree and taking it down, are the only two times we really stop to look at each ornament. He was excited to identify each one as he took them down; the house, and the bears, “the man” (a nutcracker), and the ornaments his brother’s made. The rest of the time the tree is in the background, or lighting the room. We see the collection of ornaments and decorations, but don't stop to examine each one. Each year when putting the decorations up, we stop to notice our favorite ornaments. Our tree is a collection of decorations from each of our childhoods, new ornaments we bought as a couple, and now ornaments that our kids have made. It evolves every year, with a few new ornaments each season. There are name ornaments for each child, and since this was Anna's first Christmas, we added her first ornament, a little snowman globe, to the branches.

We were so excited to start decorating this year, to hang stockings over the fireplace, and set up the crèche. We went around the house, looking for places to put the wreath, and other door ornaments, and I put out Christmas towels in the bathroom. We waited till the week before Christmas to put up the tree, because of the baby, who we knew would be interested in it’s beauty. So we were ready by the time it went up to welcome it into our living room.

I remember back to my childhood, walking past the living room at night, to the still quiet of the Christmas tree. The cold room, the pine smell, and plugging the lights into the floor to see the colors light up. I would stay there a few moments, soaking it in, and noticing the new presents put there by my siblings when no one was looking.

My baby was good this year, and great around the tree. She would look at it, but she didn’t touch. For the better part of 2 weeks she left the tree alone. It wasn’t until the last couple days that she started to pull ornaments down.

So, this last weekend of our Christmas vacation, we started to take down the tree. Tonight the plastic bins came back up from the basement, and I filled them up with ornaments. The tinsel and the lights are still up; my husband will pack them away tomorrow. And now that everyone has gone to sleep, I just might go back into the living room, turn the lights on, and enjoy the still quiet of the Christmas tree one last time.