Jan 08
9
It’s All Over Now
Posted by Stephen9
Tags: Christmas, event, tradition, winter
I took the Christmas tree down last night, along with all our other Christmas decorations. I did this after the boys had gone to bed, in part because it’s easier when they’re not crowding around trying to “help”, but also because I didn’t want them feeling sad about Christmas being over, put away in the attic for another year.
We all thoroughly enjoyed Christmas this year, the day itself and the festive season around it. We enjoyed it together as a family, and also each of us individually. The boys learned Christmas carols and took them to heart, we followed God’s redemption plan throughout Scripture during Advent, we spent my vacation days together (and Debbie got a holiday from looking after the kids all day, every day), we spent time with our neighbours, and we all enjoyed opening gifts on Christmas day. It was a good Christmas.
I had firmly in mind January 8 as the traditional date for taking down the Christmas tree, planned for it, and carried out that plan. The tree went down January 8. But then today I thought to look it up on the Internet (the source of all knowledge, didn’t you know?) and would you believe! The correct date was January 6 (Epiphany). I was two days late! So much for my plans: conscientiously completed, but based on flawed data.
I videoed the whole take-down procedure (you can see it on YouTube here) as a time-lapse sequence. An hour goes by in four minutes of video. Debbie is self-conscious about appearing in photos or video, so she made herself scarce. Thus, the boys were all asleep, Debbie was off somewhere reading a book, and I was (seemingly) all alone in a quiet house, systematically removing the decorations.
In the end it was me that felt a little sad when all was done. The living room was back to its normal, plain self. The chair back in its corner. Christmas had been good. It was over. I was back at work. Back to real life.
