O Christmas Tree

     The twelfth day of Christmas has come and gone, and far more promptly than in recent years, we took down the Christmas tree and decorations today, because this year, for the first time, we are going south for the rest of the winter.  I found myself strangely reluctant to take the tree down "so soon."   It seemed somehow to close the door on the season of festive joy we have just celebrated again, and it just didn't seem quite right.

        I have observed that in recent years, many people seem to leave up their trees and decorations for days or weeks after Christmas, whereas in years longer ago,  one would see the curbs piled with discarded Christmas trees the day after Christmas, and all those shining outside light decorations gone with the sound of  Christmas carols.   I wonder if the darkness of northern winters,  coupled with increasing freedom from tradition, have inspired more people, like us,  to light up the long nights with those festive lights that keep the feeling of holiday going a while longer.

       Heaven knows our culture could use more and longer holidays!   In India, where I grew up,

there were many, many festivals all year round, with their accompanying feasting, music, processions, dances, and general merry-making.  They provided frequent opportunities for renewing ties with family, friends, and the mythological stories and rituals of one's culture and religion.  I have come to believe that all of this feeds the soul and holds a culture together in important ways.

      Is it really good for the soul, I wonder, to celebrate as seldom (by comparison) as most of us Americans do, what with our penchant for "productivity" as a measure of the value of our persons and lives?  But then.....how many of us know how to celebrate when most of our holidays have become so stripped of spiritual meaning, and so focused on consumer spending?For too many, they have become a dreaded round of spending, social obligation, and hectic activity, rather than the leisurely, soul-restoring, holy play they are meant to be. Moreover,

   in this nation of immigrants, how possible is it, over generations, to keep the "reasons for the seasons" going in the lives of people no longer imbedded in the cultures that created the "holy days"  or in the families and communities that once celebrated them?   

      I have no answers to these questions.   But I do have a kind of homesickness in my soul when I imagine what it would be like to live a life rich in festivals of celebration.   Maybe keeping that Christmas tree up for awhile after Christmas,  and the festive lights twinkling outside, is a way to somehow keep the spirit of celebration and holiday  going through the otherwise hum-drum work-a-day  feeling of cold, gray winter.   I know it delights my heart to sit by the fireplace in a darkened room at the end of a winter day, with only the Christmas tree lights on,  and no sound but the whisper and sigh of flames in the fireplace,  and feel once again the special joy of that great festival of Christmas,  which is never really over, because it lives in my heart.