It’s December 17th and we haven’t put up our Christmas tree yet. Don’t worry, I don’t think Christmas is a humbug or anything like that. It just shows how busy our lives have been since Thanksgiving. I’ve still been listening to Christmas (and Chanukkah) music non-stop. I’ve done some shopping. I’ve eaten candy canes. The only thing we’re missing is our tree.
This isn’t the latest I’ve ever put up a tree, though. When I was young, my family had a tradition of always putting up the tree on Christmas Eve. It was a nice tradition. The tree was fresh, and the decorations were (mostly) safe from the cats when Santa arrived.
We got out of the tradition as we got older. My brothers and I used to work retail, so were we always working on Christmas Eve. And then my brother got married and his wife’s family always had a celebration on Christmas Eve. Then I got divorced and part of the divorce agreement is that my kid is with mom on Christmas Eve. So, now we all do our trees earlier in the season. We helped my parents put up their tree earlier today.
One of the nice things about Christmas is that it’s very flexible. Everyone who celebrates has a lot in common, like trees and Santa. But every family puts their own spin on it. I miss the Christmas Eve tree decorating. But I like our new traditions, too.
