Christmas tree

An important tradition of Christmas is the tree. My children have always made ours an interactive tree, using it as the stage for their play, be it army men, action figures, or the ornaments themselves. It tipped over a few times over the years before I finally rigged a way to tie it to the wall…

The Christmas I was 11, my mother had remarried and our new dad had moved us to Iowa. We were far away from extended family, with new dad, home and school, but we counted on the Christmas season to make everything right with the world. Then our step-dad announced that there would be no Christmas. He matter-of-factly told us there was no money for such things. Surely we could have a tree? No, not even a tree, and that was that.

My brothers and I were brave, we had learned not to complain, but inside we were crushed. Money had been tight when my mother was alone, but somehow she had always managed a very happy Christmas celebration. We had expected her remarriage would make things better, but instead, we were losing even Christmas.

I was in sixth grade at Olmstead Elementary, my teacher was Mrs. Hoss. We had a beautiful, full-sized real tree in our classroom, decorated with ornaments we had made in class. I reassured myself that it would be enough. Every day we rehearsed our Christmas play, re-enacting the Christmas story (those were the days when we could do that sort of thing); I was the creative consultant. The last day before vacation we presented our play to invited guests, then retrieved our ornaments and got ready to leave for the holiday break. Mrs. Hoss announced that if anyone wanted to take home the tree, they were welcome to have it. My heart skipped a beat, could it be we would have a tree after all? I hesitated, in case someone else wanted it, but no one did, and I got it! I can still feel the thrill and excitement of dragging it home, the excitement of my mother and brothers when they saw it. One phone call and we had a stand and ornaments, borrowed from a friend.

Mrs. Hoss never knew how much that tree meant to us. But God knew, I think He had a hand in providing it for us, another tender mercy. It was our Christmas, and all was right with the world.