Christmas Joy
to the whole wide world!
Every year I’ve loved the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s song “Christmas Time is Here.” And the Peanuts special for which it was written.
Remember how we used to wait each year for the network to show that special? And to think, even in the 60s, the network executives thought it had too much Bible in it. What a bunch of Scrooges. Nay, Grinches, even! I’m so glad Charles Schultz prevailed. This beautiful show is a gift to us all.
In this article:
The Eternal Tree
Christmas with Chesterton
What’s up with my weight?
The Eternal Tree
Years ago, I wrote a story about the family Christmas tree. I’m reposting it today, with pictures of my tree this year, so you can see why I love my inherited, artificial tree.
A Tree for All Seasons
First published in the Georgia Guardian, Dec. 24, 1993
Copyright Jennifer Rust
Every family has its Yuletide traditions, and ours is no exception. We’ll be going to parties, attending the Christmas Eve candlelight service at church and decorating the tree. Yet we do something lots of people would never dream of: We pull our tree out of the attic each year.
Yes, we have an artificial tree. During my impossible-to live-with teenage years, I continually referred to it as the fake tree. I would groan and roll my eyes each time my dad pulled it out of its box, telling the story of how he bought it in 1968 for only $15. (What a bargain, I can hear him say.)
When I was in high school I would beg my parents to buy a real tree. We could decorate it with strings of popcorn and other “natural” ornaments. But each year we’d re-assemble that same old tree, sticking branches into the holes on the trunk pole and bending them into place so they’d look right.
As time passed, my brother and I graduated, left the house, got jobs. Now, I have only a few days at home to celebrate the holiday. And I’ve noticed a change in the way I feel about that tree. It happened the year before last, when my dad said, “I think we might replace this one with a new tree.”
You would have thought he suggested we replace Mom. I gasped, “No! You can’t get rid of this tree!” Even as I said it I realized why.
Because of all the laughs we have putting it up each year … because all the made-in-kindergarten ornaments look just right on it … because we’ve had it for 25 years, and how many things last that long? Heck, that tree is the same age as my brother Bill and we’re keeping him.
That artificial, fake but eternal tree has become so much more than a decorative centerpiece upon which to hang the ornaments. It is a symbol of all those Christmases past and all the memories we share. That glorious fake fir has become a holiday tradition of its own. I wouldn’t trade it for the most majestic blue spruce around.
My Mom’s Angel tree
Christmas with Chesterton
G.K Chesterton (1874-1936 was known as the “Apostle of Common Sense.” He was a writer, a journalist, a man who was friends with and yet debated the great thinkers of the day such as G.B. Shaw. He was a Christian who wrote the “Father Brown” mysteries as well as hundreds of essays, poems, and books. Two of my favorites Orthodoxy and The Man Who Was Thursday.
His thoughts are pithy and succinct. You’ve probably heard “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” Chesterton said that, and so much more. Here are his thoughts on Christmas:
“The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.” – “On Christmas,” Generally Speaking
“There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in this article. It is the very essence of a festival that it breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is.” – All Things Considered, Christmas
“Any one thinking of the Holy Child as born in December would mean by it exactly what we mean by it; that Christ is not merely a summer sun of the prosperous but a winter fire for the unfortunate.” – The New Jerusalem, Ch. 5
“The more we are proud that the Bethlehem story is plain enough to be understood by the shepherds, and almost by the sheep, the more do we let ourselves go, in dark and gorgeous imaginative frescoes or pageants about the mystery and majesty of the Three Magian Kings.” – Christendom in Dublin
What’s up with my Weight?
Yes, I am still on my journey to good health. But today and tomorrow are Feast Days!
(Let’s not talk about last week when I feasted all too regularly at my three Christmas events. I have gained four pounds in the last two weeks.)
The weight graphs will resume on Monday, Dec. 30.
What Christmas is all About
The most meaningful part of the special. How can any Gen Xer not think of Linus when hearing these verses in church?
Let’s Celebrate!
Move aside Trump dance, it’s time for the Charlie Brown Christmas Dance: