Decorating the tree

 

Decorating the tree

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

It is almost time, I feel, to decorate the Christmas tree. We used to have a real tree every year. Then I bought a smallish one with the intention of putting it in the garden to grow after its indoor stint and bringing it into the house every year thereafter. It grew lopsided and didn’t look at all right, with some lovely green needles and some less than lovely brown ones.

I love the smell of real trees but find the needles quite sharp and irritating, making tree decoration more of a challenge than it should be. They drop all over the floor and secrete themselves in strange places to reappear months later. So, I abandoned real trees a few years ago and eventually found a very pleasing artificial one that looks quite like the real thing.

Tree decoration is like a Damocles’ sword – it’s a task that hangs over my head, creating anxiety. How silly! Actually, the anxiety is caused by my uncertainty about where the tree went after the previous Christmas. It always used to go in one of the lofts and if I had been particularly organised after Twelfth Night, the decorations would be nearby. For some reason, or none, that habit died and storage became a moveable feast.

Having located the tree, I turn my attention to the lights. Before putting them away I wind the lengths of little lamps round rolled-up paper, to avoid them tangling. It doesn’t always work. Inevitably, after untangling them and having the annual argument about why I didn’t store them more carefully, to which my reply should be, ‘Do it yourself then!’ we have the festive ‘Testing Of The Lights’. This is another trial of patience and language control. Naturally, some of the lights don’t work and the replacement bulbs we have don’t fit because they are remnants from long-lost sets.

At last, everything is in place and the careful placing of ornaments can begin. Unfortunately, some of the hangers have parted company with their partners and must be repaired or replaced.

I used to leave the dressing of the tree until just before Christmas Eve, but when Susannah and Frankie came to live with us when Frankie was 16 months old, I changed my routine. This was largely because Frankie’s birthday is December 1^st (the same as my late brother) and I wanted to make it more special for him.

They lived with us for five and a half years and it felt very strange, but perfectly right, when they moved into their own home.

It will be interesting to see Gilbert’s reaction to the tree. I suspect he will take pleasure in removing ornaments and taking them to his bed(s). I used to hang chocolate decorations on the tree until one year I discovered the wrappers were empty. One of the dogs had carefully sucked all the chocolate out. That was the prerogative of the children until they grew too old to indulge in such pursuits. We don’t have any glass ornaments, either. Although they’re very pretty, they break easily and are dangerous for small children and pets.

It’s all a very long way from my childhood when the tree was festooned with glass baubles and real lighted candles in clip-on holders. Simpler times, simpler pleasures, but somehow the magic remains even in these less innocent times.

 

 

A to Z challenge 2023 – X is for . . .

 

A to Z challenge 2023 – X is for . . .

My theme for this challenge is Nature in all much of her wonderful diversity. My posts will reflect the fact that I am resident in the south of England.

All photographs courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Xmas

 Recreated Victorian Christmas at Harewood House

Whether mankind is Nature’s greatest achievement is a moot point, but Christmas is a time of year when the focus in on mankind. You may or may not hold a religious belief, yet the story of the Nativity is one of hope and celebration.

When did Christmas become Xmas? In the Greek alphabet X is the symbol for ‘chi’ and is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. In the early Christian church believers used the letter X as a secret sign to other believers.

Trafalgar Square

The ‘mas’ of Xmas refers to the religious ceremony that is celebrated at Christmas – literally Christ’s mass. The first abbreviation of Christmas to Xmas appeared in 1021 when a scribe used it to save space on his scroll.

Xmas is associated with the pagan festival of Yule.

Haakon the Good (920-961) was a Christian and he ruled Norway as King Haakon I from 934 until his death in 961.  He was a tolerant ruler and did not impose his beliefs on his people, allowing them to continue their pagan worship.

However, he decreed that Christmas and Yuletide should be celebrated at the same time. To ensure that the festivals were properly celebrated, he required every free man to consume approximately four gallons of ale and to continue celebrating until the ale ran out.

Yule was celebrated at the time of the winter solstice to hail the return of the sun and longer days. Bonfires were lit, and holly, ivy and evergreen boughs were used to decorate the home. There were ritual sacrifices and great feasts, and gifts were exchanged.

Much of this ritual was absorbed into the Christian festival. For Christians, evergreens symbolised eternal life and the promise of renewed life in spring. An account from England in 1444 recorded that every house and church was dressed with oak, ivy, bay and other evergreen branches.

Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, drawn by J.L. Williams, 1848, for The Illustrated London News

It was not until December 1800 that the first Christmas tree was brought indoors to Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, by Queen Charlotte, the German wife of George III. That tree was a yew rather than a fir tree.

However, it was Queen Victoria and Prince Albert who embraced the tradition and popularised it. Illustrations of the ‘Royal Christmas’ in the 1840s in popular magazines, whetted the public appetite.

Henceforth, Christmas trees became very popular with the upper classes, particularly for children's parties, decorated with real candles and baubles, with piles of presents underneath.

When I read that I immediately thought of ‘The Nutcracker’, the engaging 1892 ballet based on Hoffmann’s 1816 story of ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’ and set to the incomparable music of Tchaikovsky. (I dislike the nutcracker character and find him quite grotesque.)

After many years, Christmas trees became an established seasonal feature in most homes.

Every year since 1947, the Norwegian government donates a large Christmas tree to Great Britain, to be erected in Trafalgar Square. It is a token of gratitude to London for sheltering the Norwegian king and government during the Second World War when Norway was under Nazi occupation.

The scent of green branches in the house on a drear December day lifts the spirits, giving promise of brighter days and new growth to come. The twinkling lights on the Christmas tree and the candles that lend their flickering warm glow, offset the darkness that falls so early.