Flimsy Sanity: Christmas trees, holiday trees, whatever

Flimsy Sanity

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Friday, December 02, 2005

Christmas trees, holiday trees, whatever


When we grew up, we had very little. To this day, I don't know if we were poor or if our parents just hoarded their money (they both feel the same). We never had a "boughten" Christmas tree. Dad would go down to the garden and thin a cedar out of the too-closely planted shelterbelt and bring the prickly, scraggly victim in. We are all familiar with putting the poorest side to the wall, but we had the dilemma of two bad grey sides opposite each other. Our decorations were pretty scanty too, so it probably worked out for the best. When I look at Shephard's opulent tree I am a little envious.

Now my house is so small that I usually just get a tumbleweed, lace white lights through it and decorate it with red balls and red ribbons. I hang it from the ceiling and plug the lights into the ceiling fixture. It actually looks stunning at night because the white lights make it look ethereal.

As for the Christmas tree/holiday tree debate, I think that is just another ploy by the Christian right to keep their members worked up. Who in the hell cares what you call it? O'Reilly and Rush just need topics to divert attention away from public opinion on the war and Bush and keep their listeners worked up to a frenzy. The only thing that would get dittoheads more enraged than destroying Christmas is not letting innocent school children pray to Baby Jesus.

4 Comments:

  • At 8:56 AM, Blogger R J Adams said…

    Hanging the Christmas tree upside down from the ceiling is exactly the right thing to do. In 12th century Germany, where the whole 'tree' thing started, they hung a small fir tree upside down from the ceiling as a symbol of the Christian Trinity (pyramid-shape - see?). Not sure about tumbleweeds, though. They're a bit circular, aren't they?

     
  • At 9:05 AM, Blogger R J Adams said…

    PS In Europe the 'holiday' thing doesn't start until Christmas when everyone stops work and gets legless till New Year's Day, after which they all return to work with mammoth hangovers and can't remember a thing except that Auntie Mabel gave them red, woolly, boxer shorts yet again, as she has done for for the last decade.
    Europeans are much more definitive than Americans: Happy Christmas; Happy New Year; Happy Easter; Happy Birthday, and that's your lot.
    I never can comprehend this American idea of having holiday times when everyone is still working. To me it's a contradiction in terms, but then, I guess for me that phrase describes America generally.

     
  • At 10:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I love the tumbleweed idea. No tumbleweed around here - seaweed, but I don't think that'd do. I would imagine the tumbleweed would put out lacey shadows on the ceiling and give a cozy feel. For me, I have a wee, tiny tree with little homemade cardinals all over it, cardinals being my favorite bird.

     
  • At 11:00 AM, Blogger Shephard said…

    Oh, the tumbleweed sounds divine... and its spheric shape could represent the virgin womb, holey holey. lol
    I think you have something there. You just need to Martha it up a bit. Do 3 tumbleweeds, hang some icicles and garland from them, bake a cake and do sugar-tumbleweed sculptures on top, lol
    Merry Merry!
    ~S

     

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