GETTING STARTED ON CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

In a burst of activity late this afternoon, I began to decorate the inside of the house for Christmas. Tom decorated outside more than a week ago, because, once the neighbors have theirs up, it's go for him. The tree is an over-decorated Charlie Brownish type, but the decorations completely obliterate any trace of the Charlie Brown effect.

SEE THIS TREE...

...which still stands on display in my living room?  I said yesterday that the tree would come down, but it has not happened.  Maybe today, but I make no promises.  The Nativity set remains on display also, with no "It's still Christmas " excuse left, because here in south Louisiana, the Carnival season has begun, and king cakes are all around.

OH DEAR!

 

MY LITTLE TREE

 

little tree 

little tree
little silent Christmas tree
you are so little 
you are more like a flower 
who found you in the green forest 
and were you very sorry to come away?
 see i will comfort you
because you smell so sweetly
i will kiss your cool bark 
and hug you safe and tight 
just as your mother would, 
only don't be afraid 
look the spangles 
that sleep all the year in a dark box 
dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine, 
the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads, 
put up your little arms 
and i'll give them all to you to hold 
every finger shall have its ring 
and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy 
then when you're quite dressed 
you'll stand in the window for everyone to see 
and how they'll stare! 
oh but you'll be very proud 
and my little sister and i will take hands 
and looking up at our beautiful tree 
we'll dance and sing 
"Noel Noel"

(e.e. cummings)

Obviously, the little tree in the video is not silent.

OH DEAR!

'THE CULTIVATION OF CHRISTMAS TREES' - T S ELIOT

There are several attitudes towards Christmas,
Some of which we may disregard:
The social, the torpid, the patently commercial,
The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight),
And the childish - which is not that of the child
For whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angel
Spreading its wings at the summit of the tree
Is not only a decoration, but an angel.

The child wonders at the Christmas Tree:
Let him continue in the spirit of wonder
At the Feast as an event not accepted as a pretext;
So that the glittering rapture, the amazement
Of the first-remembered Christmas Tree,
So that the surprises, delight in new possessions
(Each one with its peculiar and exciting smell),
The expectation of the goose or turkey
And the expected awe on its appearance,

So that the reverence and the gaiety
May not be forgotten in later experience,
In the bored habituation, the fatigue, the tedium,
The awareness of death, the consciousness of failure,
Or in the piety of the convert
Which may be tainted with a self-conceit
Displeasing to God and disrespectful to children
(And here I remember also with gratitude
St.Lucy, her carol, and her crown of fire):

So that before the end, the eightieth Christmas
(By "eightieth" meaning whichever is last)
The accumulated memories of annual emotion
May be concentrated into a great joy
Which shall be also a great fear, as on the occasion
When fear came upon every soul:
Because the beginning shall remind us of the end
And the first coming of the second coming.

I love especially the second stanza of the poem, with its description of the wonder of a child at the Christmas tree and the final stanza, perhaps because I am old.

The illustration at the head of the post shows the "Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle published in the Illustrated London News, 1848, and republished in Godey's Lady's Book, Philadelphia in December 1850." From Wikipedia.