The Year of the Christmas Tree Woes

 

As parents of a growing brood of Children, Jerry and I did what we could to prevent most Christmas tree woes.  We waited until one or two weeks before Christmas to even set up our tree, and we took it down shortly after Christmas.  Still, during that week or two prior to Christmas, ornaments the toddlers were interested in, would need to be moved and placed on a higher branch out of the reach of curious little hands.  I made the claim that ornaments would start, “marching up the tree.”

One of the ornaments on our tree, was our son Christopher’s favorite.  It was a sleeping Santa in an overstuffed upholstered blue chair.  Even though it was resin, not ceramic, I put it up near the top of the tree out of Christopher’s reach lest it walk off and get lost. 

In 1993, my husband Jerry was called to serve as Bishop of the Plano 4^th Ward in Plano, Texas.  That year we decided to have a Christmas Party for the Ward leadership in our home so that those leaders could become better acquainted with their new Bishop and his wife.  Little did we know the problems we would encounter that would make this such a difficult endeavor.

The previous year, a little black and white kitten adopted us.  She was cute and adorable.  I walked by the Christmas tree one day to discover her beady little eyes peering out at me from between two branches about halfway up the tree.  She looked so cute, that I just left her there.  I reasoned that she had gotten in without upsetting any lights or ornaments, so she could probably get out.  She did that, several more times that Christmas season.

Fast forward one year, when I was busy getting ready to welcome the Ward leadership into our home.  As the day approached, I cleaned and decorated furiously to prepare for the event.  A few days before the party was to occur, as I stood working at the kitchen sink, I heard a crash from the direction of the living room.  I rushed toward the sound of the crash to see our cat jumping from the center of the Christmas tree, which was prone on the carpeted floor.  It was obvious that the cat was the cause of the tree having fallen.  No longer a tiny kitten, she had grown enough to topple the tree.  As I went to pick it up, I discovered that the stand was broken.  This put me in full panic.  I called the manufacturer of the tree.  They overnighted me a new stand.  By the next evening the tree was standing again, no worse for the wear.

The morning after our tree had been restored to its upright position, I was again working in the kitchen, when I heard a too familiar sounding crash.  I rushed in to find an upset Christopher.  He had decided to climb up and get his favorite ornament and in doing so, had toppled the tree, breaking the stand.  He proceeded to blame me for placing it out of his easy reach.  Rather than argue with a four-year-old, I went straight to the phone and called the tree manufacturer’s customer service again.  This time, I had them overnight two stands. 

The Ward leadership Christmas party was a success.  No one even knew the problems we had encountered.  We used that tree for many more years, finally replacing it in 2017.  Last year in cleaning through Christmas things in the attic, we found the extra stand, which had never been used, and threw it away.

One of our Christmas customs was to get a new ornament each year for each member of the family.  When the children left home for good (generally signaled by their getting married), I packed up their box of ornaments to give to them. Several years ago, I gave Christopher our one and only copy of the sleeping Santa ornament.  It is now proudly displayed on his tree every year.