Thanksgiving is past now, and in many homes it is time to put up the Christmas tree. Maybe it will be a fresh, green Scotch pine that you cut down yourself at the tree farm. What a wonderful smell! Or you may opt to buy a tree from the Boy Scouts or some other organization with a Christmas tree lot. Or you might just go to the basement or garage and retrieve the artificial tree that’s good for at least one more year.
I used to be very strict when it came to a Christmas tree; without question, it had to be “real.” With the passing of time, though, I have moved from the saw-it-down-myself tree which was recycled at the season’s end to the kind I recycle myself by reusing it. Without the danger of fire that accompanies the drying fir or pine, I can enjoy my Christmas tree from Thanksgiving (or even Halloween, when the stores put out their Christmas goods) through New Year’s Day—or through Epiphany or Martin Luther King, Jr. Day if I wish!
My grandchildren call the tree made of green plastic bristles a “fake” Christmas tree, but I know better. It may be artificial but it is still a real Christmas tree, because I am celebrating a real Christmas. Sometimes, in difficult years now past, I had a real tree but not a real Christmas. Now, whether the tree is natural or man-made, it is a real Christmas tree.
However you choose to celebrate this season—even if there is no tree at all—I hope and pray for you a real Christmas!
MaryMartha
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Email: mrymrtha@gmail.com
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