I used to be a person who didn’t decorate my home for Christmas until after the 4th Sunday of Advent. My wonderful and patient spouse was kind about my insistence in the early years of our marriage. But in 2020, when the world felt pretty bleak in the midst of the COVID pandemic, David said that the world needed more light. I agreed, and we put up our tree over Thanksgiving weekend! A new tradition was born.

This morning, I broke an ornament that I inherited from my parents. The accident left me feeling sad and nostalgic, so David and I spent breakfast looking at our tree and talking about ornaments we notice and what they mean to us. (Our tree sits near our dining room table, so this conversation actually happens multiple times during December and early January!)

We remarked on how our tree is a catalog of memories. There are a series of ornaments made for David by former parishioners in churches he has served (including a tiny replica of David and a mini sled that reads Super Pastor 1982 rather than Flexible Flyer!). My mom spent several years running a small home-based craft business with a friend – and our tree has many ornaments that she made during that time. David always places my first craft project – a rather bedraggled owl made when I was a Brownie scout – front and center on the tree. I have many antique ornaments that came from my parents and grandparents that continue to give me joy when I spy them twinkling in the lights. We save a spot at eye level where we each hang our favorite ornament side-by-side. And we’ve begun collecting ornaments from our travels – they are a small and relatively inexpensive way to record our journeys together.

The Christmas season is complex. For some of us it’s a time of joy and delight. For others, it is a time of sadness and grief. I find myself feeling my griefs a bit more strongly this year – so our tree exercise was a lovely way to remember those I’ve loved who are here no longer. And I’m grateful for the memories of happy times, too.

If this season is feeling complex for you, as well, I invite you to join us for a service of Blue Christmas. Our seminarian Joshua will be leading this service that acknowledges the sorrow and struggle that many feel during this season. It will also be on Zoom for those who prefer being home in the evenings.

I invite you to explore your own Christmas memories. What reminds you of Christmases past? Is it an ornament? A carol? Worship? And how does that object invite you to enter into your own memories of loved ones or key moments in your life? The coming of Christmas and the end of the year is a wonderful time for reflection, if you can find some space in this busy season.

Blessings and love,

Fran