The holidays are upon us once again. Streets, shops and homes are festooned with garlands, wreaths and twinkling multi-colored lights as festive music is playing. Hallmark and other TV channels are programming Yuletide-themed movies all day and night.
As a kid, I witnessed that kind of spectacle many times, often to the melodies of songs like Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time is Here” or Nat King Cole singing “The Christmas Song.”
Back then, I could just about believe it possible that a plump, jolly old elf could drive flying reindeer to pull a sleigh filled with toys for those lucky children who made it to the Nice List. And I still never tire of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
While the focal decorative points of Hanukkah or Kwanzaa are, respectively, the lighted candles of the menorah and kinara, my family celebrated Christmas — so we put up Christmas trees. My grandfather would trek out into the woods on his sizable acreage, chop down an evergreen of suitable size, and bring it back to the house, whereupon my grandmother would dig out the holiday decorations for us kids to do up the tree nice and proper.
When we visited my father and family in Washington, D.C., his choice of tree often leaned toward the artificial kind that could be stored in a box and reassembled, year after year. I think both approaches worked out just fine.
Since I reached adulthood, I’ve never possessed many holiday decorations, although I’ve got the odd knickknack here and there. One I couldn’t resist buying was an ornament of the Delta Flyer spacecraft from “Star Trek: Voyager.” I also have several festive miniatures of Snoopy, and a Spider-Man figurine ready to hang from a branch. But I never really had a Christmas tree that they could spruce up. I considered buying an artificial one last week but then I got a better idea.
I had heard about and seen photos of Christmas trees made of stacked books. Being a bibliophile, I found this greatly appealing, so I figured this was the perfect time to try making one of my own.
I had just enough titles that I had shipped or carried with me to Wrangell to make it work. It took a couple of tries, but I think it turned out very well, especially after I bought a few strings of LED lights to weave around it. It doesn’t display my Delta Flyer, Spider-Man figurine, or any of the miniature Snoopys. Not yet. I’ll have to dig them out of storage, but there’s always next year. Nevertheless, it feels good to start a new holiday tradition, one that is uniquely mine.
Happy holidays.
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