The Christmas Tree
She took the paper towel and wiped the dust off the ornament and placed it in the Hallmark box it originally came in. As she slid it in the box, her mind slid into the past.
Hubby is a Jain, before he began dating her, he really hadn’t celebrated Christmas before. In the dating years they might get a live tree and decorate it. She couldn’t remember those trees, but the Christmas after their wedding they waited for the after Christmas sales. They went to the artificial tree store in the mall and found the perfect tree. Not too tall, but taller than them, not skinny, just full enough to spill into the room around it. It was 50% off and perfect for their newlywed budget. They needed an artificial one because they were planning to move to India, and they weren’t going to find Christmas trees there.
They went to the Hallmark store and bought a first year married ornament. It was a strange shape, as if someone took a round ornament and pulled it from the top and bottom. Most of the bulb was black with writing, but softened with painted pink bouquets and green leaves, the bottom point was left silver. The writing talks about love and first Christmas spent together and 1988, the year they got married.
She carefully folds the box that cradles that precious memory and puts it in the blaster box.
After Hallmark, they went to Walmart and bought basic red, green, and blue glass bulbs. They were boring, but they would fill in the tree’s empty spaces. On a high shelf they also found a single box of 2 pearlesque pink and 2 pearlesque blue glass balls decorated with ribbon and delicate faux flowers. How they searched the shelves in the hope of finding more like these, but only this lone box was to be had. They became precious in that moment. She can still remember the devastation a few years later when one fell to the floor and shattered and now there are only three. As she placed them in their original box that now had an empty spot that could never be filled.
Growing up they always put a bird nest with a mama bird and her eggs that her older sister had purchased when she was in Girl Scouts on the tree. After her parents’ divorce that became the tree topper. But she and Hubby discussed whether they should top their tree with an angel or a star, they both chose angel. In Walmart during their 70% off sale they found their angel. She was perfect not too big, but she had the perfect face. She was used for many years, until time and dust took their toll. They spent precious hours in the US looking for a replacement. They found one that was bigger, bolder and yet still had the perfect face. But she didn’t even last a single year as she took a tumble from the top of the tree and her porcelain head broke. The following visit to the US they found another, not as perfect as the previous two, but she works.
They were in New Delhi for their second Christmas together as a married couple, but their precious tree was in a crate in a New York City port, waiting to be shipped. In the hopes of easing her homesickness, her in-laws had purchased a little evergreen bush and decorated it with colored lights. She loved that little Charlie Brown bush, it was filled with love.
The following year their family had expanded and they went back to the US to show off the new addition. They arrived in time to experience all of the noise, color and gaiety that is a Midwest Christmas. Money was tight, but they saved up to go to Hallmark and bought a 1st Christmas ornament for their firstborn. It was a powder blue plastic and thread design. In addition, one of her cousins had personalized a little baby Micky Mouse ornament for him. Therefore, he had two ornaments.
From then on it became a tradition each year for them to find a new ornament for the tree.
After their 2nd was born they went to the US in the summer and were unable to get a first Christmas ornament with his birth year on it. They tried to make it up and got him a Bert and Ernie ornament the next time they went home. But just as his first Christmas photos were stolen with her camera, his first ornament was stolen off their tree. Who took it? No one knows. Later she tried to find another one, but could only find a little Bert and Ernie toy, that now is placed on a branch with nothing to hang from.
Most of their lights and garlands came from the US. Her mom would go out to the after Christmas sales and stock up on icicles and such.
However, Christmas was becoming more of an event in Delhi. Each year the American Women’s Association held a Christmas/Winter mela (fair). She always volunteered at the library booth and across the way was C Lal’s booth. Mr. Lal was well known in the expat community for his small shop of trinkets and things you never knew you needed until you saw them and every year he would get in a huge Christmas collection. When she was finished with her duty, Hubby would bring the kids and each of them would pick out an ornament for that Christmas. Hubby would go for broke and buy any decoration that caught his fancy.
Another booth was an NGO booth where their people weaved napkins, tablecloths, runners and anything else they thought they could sell. They picked up dozens of red and green solid napkins and several red and green plaid tablecloths. One of which always ends up as the tree duster.
When travelling they would look for Christmas ornaments to commemorate their trip.
A trip to Disneyworld, added Ceramic Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and a plastic Cinderella’s Castle. A trip to Las Vegas added two clear bulbs filled with sand and dice, but only one survived the trip home. A trip to Cape Canaveral added a commemorative of Apollo 11.
2001, her kids had never experienced a Western Christmas season, the following year her oldest would join the senior school and then he would never have time. She went to the principal of their junior school and requested they be allowed to go to the US for 6 weeks. She and the kids arrived before Thanksgiving, Hubby joined them just in time for Christmas. Her mom knew of his love of crystal and glass. She gave him a heavy crystal ornament nestled in a green felt box, the kind that looked like you could fill it with something, but the only thing it held was love between a mother-in-law and her son-in-law.
2003, while visiting the US, they took her mother to Gatlinburg with them. Even before entering Pigeon Forge they stopped at the lone building that housed huge rooms of decorated Christmas Trees, from traditional to esoteric. Hubby picked out a large red bulb with her name on it. She thought it was too big, but he insisted. Hubby splurged in the store buying faux antiqued bulbs, garland and anything that caught his attention. Her Mom had to store much of it until their following trip. Her mother had known that Hubby loved Christmas from the tales of their Christmas parties. However, it was that trip that she saw firsthand his giddiness towards it. The next time they were home for Christmas her mom gave Hubby three porcelain bulbs. They came in a Styrofoam box with indentations for the bulbs. They were heavy and precious, green with winter scenes. They had been given to her mother, but she believed Hubby was the only one that would treat them with the care they needed. Hubby’s heart burst with pride at this outward showing of trust and affection.
2005, Hubby had always been a workaholic. Other than the trips to the US, most of which he only joined in the last week or 10 days, the family had never taken more than a four day vacation together. As their eldest would soon be gearing up to go to college, Hubby arranged a ten day trip to Italy. Rome, Florence, and Venice, but it was a day trip to Murano that Hubby had been waiting for. His love of anything glass was about to be indulged. For the kids, they were allowed to pick up a Murano ornament, they chose the traditional round style, but Hubby and she fell in love with the handblown elongated ornaments that looked like stained glass. They were packed so carefully, in a repurposed Noritake china box. Each carefully wrapped in tissue and paper towels. One had originally been given to her Mom as a Christmas gift, but it now laid with its siblings, returned after her mother’s death.
2007, she went home in the summer. Whenever, she went home she would take gifts. The only rule on these gifts was that they had to be made in India. That year starved for ideas she went to Mr. Lal’s store and saw papier mache ornaments of all sizes and designs. She sat on his floor for hours, looking at all the various designs, sizes and patterns, making 12 sets. In addition, he said he was able to get some papier mache stockings made that she could personalize. With her niece and nephews getting to the age where they would soon have places of their own, she got everyone unique sets of ornaments and their own personalized stocking. To make it a complete family event she made stockings for Hubby, the kids, and herself as well.
2014, the year before her mother passed. Her older son was working and couldn’t get time off, but the younger one had joined his parents to spend Christmas in the US. Ornaments were purchased and gifted. Her Mom bought each of her grandchildren identical ornaments, the same for her daughters. Memory holders for a woman who could not be forgotten. Other family members also gave ornaments. Some mementos of Cincinnati, and others for a German tradition for a nonGerman family. She had never heard of hiding a pickle ornament on a tree before, but it became a game after the tree was fully decorated and lighted that she would hide the dark green metal pickle, to be searched for, for luck. Her sister gave her commemorative mall kiosk family ornaments naming the family members.
2018, her older son is newly married. All of them find themselves in the US to introduce the new bride to the American side of the family. The parents take the bride and groom to Hallmark and they pick out ornaments to commemorate their wedding. Hubby finds a kiosk that sells ornaments similar to those given by her sister years ago. He gets one that includes his daughter-in-law’s name.
She sits at the table, alone. This is her job, to pack up the ornaments. Others are responsible for removing the lights, garlands and packing the tree into its box for the next 11 months.
She looks at the ornaments that mark the stages of her life. She now has separate boxes with her children’s names on them. These are their boxes for when they set up their own homes. Some of them marking their college or a trip they took. Some of them mark their love of Star Wars. Some of them are gifts from people who love them.
The Sound Blaster box gets filled with the markers from her life. Ornaments purchased with time and affection. Memory holders.
Another box she fills with ornaments she has found over the years and had to have. The 6 mini felt stockings that always go on the base of the tree. The faux candy canes to replace real ones that are so difficult to find in India. The papier mache from C Lal’s and others given as gifts. The various Santa Clauses, the brass trumpet, the …..so many, too many to fit onto one tree. Some from here, some from there. Joining the different parts of her life in one place.
Hubby still insists that some of the colored glass balls go on the tree, it’s always fight or maybe more of a tug-a-war to keep those to a minimum. Maybe next year they will put up two trees. They have enough, but her tree, will be the eclectic memory tree. The one where fifty cent Walmart ornaments hang next to multi Euro Murano glass. It will have the Angel that is the last thing to be placed on the tree, always by her husband, even though stepping on the chair is getting more difficult. As she dusts the ornaments before putting them in their boxes, her memory slides through the years when her Hubby put on Christmas Carols and she would bake cookies and they would all stand and throw icicles onto the tree. That feeling of love and warmth as they talk about each of the special ornaments. The moment they would all stand together and turn off the room lights and switch on the tree lights and bask in the twinkling light. Happy to be together. Happy.
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