Christmas Tree Memories

Lights have always been a favorite part of Christmas for me. As a child, we lived in a small Mississippi town and the highlight of the beginning of the Christmas season was the lights that hung across each power line in the downtown area. I can remember the thrill of seeing those lights to this day. Christmas had begun when the lights went up.

We always cut down a cedar tree for our Christmas tree and when it was decorated I could spend hours just sitting in the dark and looking at the lights and the tinsel that reflected the lights. I would turn on the LP Christmas albums and I would sing along to all the great Christmas songs and even get a little sad when I would hear “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” …who would think such a thing? 

In the “retro” sixties, we had the aluminum tree with the rotating colored disc that changed the color of the aluminum branches. The colors would mesmerize me. The down side of that tree one year is, we decided to decorate it with only small candy canes. My friend Abbie and I decided that we would see how many of them we could eat…not a good idea, I did not like peppermint for a very long time after that.

Those memories are so sweet to me and I love going back there in my mind. It took me years, I am sorry to say, to really know what the lights represent. They represent the Light of Christ, hum! Maybe that is where the good feeling came from while I watched the lights. Christ was with me the whole time.