Was reading the newspaper when I came to this article. Its called ‘Oh (real) Christmas tree” by Jessica Cheam.
She is good, or at least this article was very well written.
Let me extract out the parts for you.
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“Many people have a love-hate relationship with Christmas. Some even argue that the reason behind the occasion, the birth of Jesus, is not even in December – but in April or November, depending on which historian’s theory or calculation you believe in or use.
My other half is one who is ambivalent about the occasion – he can’t decide whether to embrace or ignore it. A week ago, he declared: “I’m not doing Christmas this year.” “But you don’t do Christmas every year,” I shot back.
By “not doing Christmas”, he meant that he will not go shopping, send any cards or indulge in what he considers time – and money-wasting activities which many people get sucked into by glitzy shopping malls and fancy retailers.
…
This year, he insisted he will “not do Christmas” again, except for one thing: Get a real Christmas tree.
…
Why don’t we buy a fake tree? We can reuse it every year and it will be indestructible even for our hyper-active cat, I suggested.
Silence. The look of horror on his face made me realise that my status might just have been downgraded from “engaged to…” to “Jessica is now single”.
To be honest, I have never thought about real Christmas tree my entire life. Mum had a synthetic tree which she reused every year. I was involved in hanging the decorations until I became a teenager and was “too cool” to be associated with it.
…
We had read somewhere that real trees could live on even after the Christmas season if they were planted again. So we decided to give this a try and if that failed, recycle the tree or compost it.
Thus, we began our hunt for a Christmas tree …
…
On Monday, it was delivered. When I came home from work that day, the first thing that hit me was the smell. It was a big surprise for me. Our home smelt like the forest, the rain and even a little bit like England all wrapped into one.
We draped our fairy lights (energy saving LED, by the way) around the tree and hung shiny baubles on its branches. My other half even bought pine cones that we could hang to make it look even more like a real tree.
When the lights came on, the twinkling tree came alive and cast a cosy, colourful glow all around the home.
I looked at him and he had a silly grin. “This finally feels like home,” he said. And it struck me – this is the fifth Christmas we are spending in Singapore since moving from the UK. The poor man was homesick.
…
I looked at our tree and then at him again, and realised that whatever the cost and effort, it had been worth everything.
Love it or hate it, I realised Christmas is not so much the once-a-year, year-end commercial activity of buying expensive gifts or organising big parties, but about making the people who matter to you happy.
Corny? Perhaps.
But it’s also true.”
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I was all caught up and being attracted by the facts in the article and how she relates her personal life into the writeup.
And then the curve ball came in, “Love it or hate it, I realised Christmas is not so much the once a year … but about making the people who matter to you happy.”
I didnt see that coming.
Thought it’ll be like “oh maybe they gonna plant a tree or adopt a tree for Christmas” and all that Jazz.
But no.. “about making the people who matter to you happy.”
woh…
I’m impressed.
My turn! gonna whip up a meal for the family, or just do something to “make the people who matter to me happy”
You too~
Thanks for coming by,
Be Bless
Love,
Amanda
