DISMANTLING THE CHRISTMAS TREE

A lovely sentiment

Jan. 1, 1938

Before the fireplace in the evening

Dearest Son,

I’ve dismantled the tree and feel like I can settle down to just living again and enjoying my gifts and memories of a very happy Christmas to which you added a great deal.

Friday I took the fir boughs from over the windows and doors, then I used sprays of holly across the curtains and it is so much prettier, so next Christmas I’ll open your box early and decorate with holly instead of fir. Already planning for Christmas, you see. ~ Ina Dobson to her son Vance

We see poems about “bringing home the Christmas tree,” but nobody much sings about taking it out. While setting it up and decorating evokes images of fun, taking it out smacks of work.

Since this was our first year to have a tree at the town house, I decided I needed better ornament storage than several tin cans, so I bought a smallish plastic ornament storage container at JoAnn’s. Still, I repacked these vintage ornaments several times before I determined the best way to go about it. In the end, I placed all of them into the new container and put it on a shelf in the house, which is the most environmentally friendly place I have. I figure something less precious can go out to the shed.

Once our tree was bare of ornaments, we unceremoniously plopped it into its original box, which is now somehow inadequate. We can never get it back in that box. A storage bin for the tree is now on my shopping list.

I so love Ina’s philosophy of Christmas: “It helps to pass the winter.” As December became January, she was “ready to settle down to just living again and enjoying her gifts and memories.” It's good advice. I plan to read, sew, and crochet – and of course, take the dogs for their afternoon walk. But – we still have to endure the dark, cold months when nothing much happens, so I have planned a blog project based on our advent story -- a discussion of gingerbread. You might enjoy beginning by listening to this podcast from “Stuff You Missed in History Class,” which incorporates a history of gingerbread about halfway through (here). KW