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A symbol up in flames

January 30, 2015

The story ritual is terribly familiar:

An all-consuming hell fire.

Missing people. Children, included.

Statements from surviving family members.

Statements from the school.

Media stake-outs. Front pages. Internet headlines.

Teddy bear memorials.

Rumors.

Cordoned search for remains.

Body found. Another. Six.

Then, the cause of the hell fire.

Faulty electrical outlet.

Accidental.

The instrument of the fire? Its unwitting carrier?

A Christmas tree.

A warm symbol of the most joyous, decorated and family-knit occasion for many families—a tree-skirted, star-topped ritual signifying tradition, charity, family, Christ, peace on earth.

A Christmas tree.

But won’t we worry more about them now? Will we remember to water it enough? Are the needles starting to look a little dry? Won’t we assign someone in our families to turn off the tree before the last one goes to sleep?

Won’t some of us make sure we unplug the tree every night?

All those little lights, all that big electricity.

We’ll watch it like a hawk.

And when the holiday has worn off, we’ll get a little down to see our tree stripped of its family ornaments and knotted light strings and drying out before our eyes.

It was a good tree, we’ll say.

We’ll remember yet another Christmas.

And how wonderful to be grandparents and having the kids over to see the tree. Knowing you bought them stuff their parents probably didn’t want them to have, but you don’t have to play by any gift rules.

If you want to keep the tree up way past Christmas, that’s your call, too. What’s the rush? Why not keep the tree up a little longer for them?

Why not keep the tree up a little longer for you?

There are the folks who take down their tree the day after Christmas, the folks who wait a few days, maybe a week, and there’s those who just keep delaying.

Why?

Because it’s harder for some to take it down, to let go for another year until we start the ritual again of...

Picking out a Christmas tree.

Let’s get a big one this year.

Maybe just have white lights and red ornaments. Do something different for a change.

Or we can do the same as we do every year because it’s our Christmas tree.

And it will be a good one, we’ll say.