It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.....

by Joanie T

"It’s the Holiday season with a whoop-de-do and a hickory dock….. "

Yes it is! Time for lots of fa la la-ing, decking the halls, wishing you a Merry Christmas and presents under the tree.

I started out composing this post with the thought of focusing on one aspect of Christmas—ornaments for the tree. But as I started Googling them I ran into first one then the other fascinating sites talking about all sorts of Christmas traditions. And I could not stick with only one aspect. So as with my opening lines (The first is from a favorite, jazzy song by Andy Williams called the “Happy Holidays” song) I’m going to just throw out a hodge podge of my thoughts on this “Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”

I’ll start with the tree. We all know that as with many of our modern day traditions, the Christmas tree has its roots (pun intended) in Celtic/Pagan traditions. Kind of appeals to my Irish genes, don’t you know. And yes, Germany had a hand in getting it all started especially with glass blown ornaments.

This year I decided to buy one of those pre-lit, simple three piece Christmas trees. My brother dutifully helped me out, put it together, stared at its sparse foliage and said “It’s a Charlie Brown tree!”

I took a deep breath and said “That’s why God invented tinsel.”

I set about making my little tree beautiful. It’s true, a little tinsel will go a long way into sparkling up the place. I found out that the Germans, once again, were the first ones to use tinsel only they used REAL silver shredded into thin strips.

I used Walgreen’s garlands.

Next came the ornaments. Now ornaments are a lot like the Christmas tree lights. In one camp you have the people who want only coordinated, satin or glass balls. It probably goes with their tasteful white only lights. No doubt about it, those are beautiful trees.

And then there are people like me :-)

Multi-colored lights all the way, baby! And the ornaments? A montage of my interests, my friendships, my life. I have a collection of homemade ones and ones representative of my interests, most notably my reputation as a baker. I even bought myself one that was an oven mitt with whisks, spatulas etc. poking out of it. Did ya’ll know I bake chocolate chips cookies? Then that would explain the rotund Santa with a see through belly filled with chocolate chip cookies and the little chipmunk sitting ON a chocolate chip cookie.

I have a group of snowmen with my CP’s names, one of two elegant lady deer sipping cocktails over lunch. Tucked away in the branches are a small cross-stitched bell given by a friend who has since passed on and one that says “Mom”.

My tree is as individual as me and I think that is cool.

Add a twinkly star and a traditional red and green tree skirt and voila….I join Snoopy in winning the decorating contest.

I could go on and on about Christmas but we have ten more days of the Banditas Twelve Days of Christmas to go so I’ll leave with a little Christmas trivia quiz:

1. Which of Santa’s reindeer is named after another animal?
2. Which Christmas song holds the credit as the highest selling Christmas single of
all time?
3. Which company made the concept of Santa Claus popular in America?
4. Which country is the largest exporter of Christmas trees?
5. When is Santa Claus’, i.e. St. Nicholas’s birthday?

Answer the questions as best you can,
The elves of The Lair may give you a hand,
The gift for today, we cannot let lay,
So give it a shot and come on and play!