O Christmas Tree

I decided since many people have advent calendars and countdowns to Christmas that perhaps I could briefly talk about a Christmas Carol/song everyday until Christmas. Today is O Christmas Tree otherwise known in German as O Tannenbaum. I'm not a big fan of this song, but it is quite popular on the radio. It is about this time of the year most people are cutting down trees or bringing out the fake ones from the basement and putting them up. Decorating the tree with lights and garland as well as ornaments begins over the next few weeks as well! I'm going to miss this years tree picking. I miss the family bundling up and driving to the Christmas tree farm and we'd walk for what seemed like hours around the place trying to find a tree. Most of the time we would walk through a foot of snow and be completely frozen by the time we are done. We'd probably complained and hated it, but I look back and wouldn't take back any of those times. They were so much fun! The family together finding a tree that will only last for a few weeks. I always looked forward to sipping on hot cocoa after the fact and then sitting by a warm fire afterwards.

The tree is a symbol of life to me. We continue to grow and learn through the whole year, we don't stop and die when the weather changes. The tree is always green, even through the cold and snow.

Today I went to a Christmas shop and they had a whole bunch of fake trees decorated in different themes: SEC football teams, beach, snowflakes, marshmallow figures, seasame street and sock monkey's just to name a few. I love how creative people can be with their trees. It reminded me of a time back in grade school when we took a field trip to the museum and they had trees decorated from countries around the world. It was pretty neat to see how another country would decorate. Its funny/interesting to see that Christmas is a world holiday and we all celebrate it. Usually I just think about people in the states and that they are the only people who do this. We may all have different decorations and traditions, but yet we still sit around a tree. Its practically the centerpiece of Christmas (except that Christ is!)

So if you are decorating a tree...have fun and be creative and remember people on the other side of the world are doing the same thing!

Photo is not mine!