4th December 2024

Each year in December newspapers and magazines tell us what decorations are ‘in’ this time and what are unfashionable and ‘so last year’. Does anyone take any notice?

I know no one who throws out their Christmas tree decorations or Christmas table decorations unless they are damaged. For most of us they acquire a value which has nothing to do with their cost. “That’s the one we bought in…” “That’s the one so-and-so made when he was six”. We ourselves throw out Christmas cards – usually next December having updated the list and found those elusive changes of address sent with last year’s card! But we pack up the tree and table decorations for next year.

I have most of the decorations from a tree decorated in war-time 1944 when I was two years old. Nothing to buy in the shops. My mother made woolly pom-poms and with a small amount of crepe paper, made tiny crackers and butterflies with sealing-wax bodies. From somewhere my Grandma got four small metal bells and Great Aunt Ann cadged three very old glass ornaments from well-off childless relatives. They have been put on a tree ever since.

They had (and have) no monetary value but they speak of hope. Belief in 1944 that a tree was still worth bothering with. Belief that Christmas was still to be celebrated for Christ coming into the world.

In a world of wars and uncertainty our decorating for Christmas speaks to me of the faithfulness of long dead relatives and the eternal hope we are offered at Christmas.

Margaret Clements