roponents of the decorator Christmas tree with all matching ornaments in a single color, but more into the kind with the ornaments dating back many years. Some of the ornaments were handcrafted by us one year with friends on Boulder's Marine Street in a pre-child era; we stirred up a batch of clay-like substance, made our shapes, baked them, and then painted them. We still have several to this day made by friends we see each Christmas at the caroling party.Other ornaments, each with their memories, were bought over time, or sent by grandparents to our children. Minnie and Mickey Mouse were sent from Indiana by my mother many years ago when my son was still young enough to be so excited on Christmas morning that sleeping late was absolutely not an option, and my daughter was a baby who also frowned upon late mornings. These ornaments still bear my mother’s neat, fifth grade school teacher handwriting on the backs: “From Granny and Grandpa, Christmas 1988.”
My husband likes the kind of ornaments that reflect prismed light, and we all spend a certain amount of time positioning these ornaments near lights on the tree.
This year we had quite a quandary about tinsel. The tree seemed to look very beautiful without it, and we thought long and hard, but in the end we placed the tinsel on the tree once more. Accordingly to tradition and theory it is carefully distributed one strand at a time. In reality there is a wild frenzy of tinsel throwing and messy clumping that must later be straightened out by the compulsive among us.
I learned recently that a good friend of mine also has the tinsel controversy at her house every year, and I suspect it is much more common than can be imagined.
2 comments:
Ah, tinsel. The problem by our lights is that tinsel isn't what it used to be. One must go back a ways to call up our problem. We like tinsel, but we like how tinsel used to be, which, unfortunately, was made of lead. It is no longer available except on eBay, where it sells for astonishing sums, being of vintage production and all. It had such a lovely glitter and a wonderful breakable tensility.
Tinsel tensile. haha :]
love
christmas
Here is a horrible admission: once about 34 years ago when I was very very young a much older friend loaned up a box of Christmas ornaments for my first Christmas tree away from home. Included was some tinsel - which in my ignorance I thought was like the tinsel I had always known as a child - disposable. (Why had she stored it in the box, then dummy?). So I tossed it when we took down the tree. Who knew it was the irreplaceable old fashioned kind of permanent tinsel. The controversy goes way back. Sigh.
Post a Comment