In Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye booms out his philosophy: “Traaadition! Marriages must be arranged by the Paaapa! This should never be changed. One little time you pull out a prop, and where does it stop? Where does it stop?”
Tradition. It gives us roots. It glues us together. But sometimes, as Tevye discovers, it’s necessary - and good - for tradition to be revisited.
For many, many years during the Christmas season, a fresh tree stood in our living room – either some scraggly juniper-type we cut from our friend’s woods (those were the lean-budget years), a shipped-in tree wrapped in plastic mesh we selected from our kids’ school fund-raiser lot (those were the dutiful years), or a carefully chosen tree we cut ourselves at a Christmas tree farm (those were the make-it-easy-but-memorable years).
Early in the month of December we dragged the sacrificed tree through the kitchen door and on into the living room, and on New Years day we dragged it back out, sprinkling dry pine needles all along the way. Sometimes I continued to find pine needles under furniture or around the edge of the carpet for months afterwards.
Despite the fact that artificial trees have always been taboo in our family, this year I made an executive decision: I bought a small table-top artificial tree to stand on top of the piano.
What about traaadition? It was time to change. Energetic little grandkids (and large grand-dogs) frequent our small house. It just made sense to get the tree off the floor, away from investigative little fingers and wagging tails. And there's no way I would chance putting a base holding water on the piano!
I did my homework and found a realistic-looking tree on sale that should last us the rest of our lives. It adds a nice touch of festivity to our living room – a new tradition.
2 comments:
I am so with you on being traditional Beth. Every decoration had to be in the same spot every year... until this year. We have the tree up (it was my parent's) but there won't be very many lights. And only the newest, non breakable ones will go on the tree.I made it through many years of young fingers and they never broke a thing. But now we have the Princess Sophia living with us and nothing is going to survive her. My beloved Nativity will remain packed away this year as I refuse to risk having it broke, especially by a cat!
It seemed weird when we went from a real tree to mom's artificial tree, but now it's ok. and nobody wants to go and chop down a tree anymore. Sadly,these are all signs of old age that we and our children must accept.
Yep! - us too. We decided to get our first artificial tree this year. Only in our case, no one but us and a couple of friends will be here for Christmas, and January will be hectic, so we ordered a collapsible tree, pre-decorated with lights and artificial Poinsettias. That way we can put it up and take it down with a minimum of effort. I hope it doesn't look as bad as it sounds - LOL - it should arrive in a couple of days.
~Ruth
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