It
is now officially the first week of March, and we keep talking about
the need to take down our Christmas tree. We still turn on the
tree lights every night, and enjoy the festive glow that it provides
as we eat our dinner and watch TV.
Fluffy
keeps saying, "Well, I guess we need to take down the tree this
week," and I agree with him. But then he puts it off for
another day and I never complain, because I'm enjoying it too.
By
this time you are probably thinking that we have one of those fake
trees, but you would be wrong. In fact, the reason it will
eventually come down is that it is becoming more of a fire hazard
each day. But all things considered, it is only looking
slightly droopier than the day it was first put up.
In
fact, other than the fact that it’s a fire hazard, the only
problem with the tree is that now that the branches go downward, the
ornaments are starting to roll off the branches and land with a thunk
on the floor. Those thunk
sounds surprise us, and we are too old to be startled. Nasty things
happen when old people get startled. For one thing, they might choke
on their teeth.
Also,
I am afraid that some of our ornaments might break. After carting
some of our Christmas ornaments in my lap home from exotic places, I
would hate to have them end up in pieces on the floor because they
slid off the branches of the Christmas tree because the branches were
pointing downward because they no longer were perky enough to point
up. Fortunately, the tree sits on top of a protective rug, so most
of the time the fallen ornaments don’t break.
Between
church activities and friends, we have lots of people come to visit
us — people who might be a little taken aback by the Christmas
tree in our family room. Just this week we had the Relief
Society book group meeting in the same room as the tree.
No one made any comments, however, having gotten used to the fact
that, well, the Kidd family is just a little bit strange.
The
thing is, everyone we know is used to our leaving our Christmas
decorations up as long as is humanly possible. We may take down our
tree in March, for example, but the wreath on our front door stays up
until it falls down. And the wreath inside on our stairway stays up
(I should be embarrassed to say this) until the friend who makes our
wreaths needs the ribbon to make next year’s wreath in
December.
Yes,
it is true. I have no shame.
But
Fluffy and I like Christmas. We like the music. We like the
decorations. We like the food. We like the way Christmas makes us
happy. We want to hold onto that for as long as we can. And if that
means we listen to Handel’s Messiah year-round and keep
up our indoor live Christmas wreath until December (long after
it is technically not alive anymore), well, that’s our
prerogative because it’s our house.
We
have noticed something interesting in this year of 2015, however.
Usually, Fluffy and I are alone in leaving our Christmas decorations
up way into the New Year. But this year, we have seen many holdouts
as we have looked into windows on our street and beyond. This year,
we will not be the last people in our town to take down our Christmas
decorations.
Maybe
it’s the cold. Maybe it’s the bone-chilling “global
warming” that has done everyone in, here in the Washington,
D.C., suburbs and along the East Coast. We have gone far past seeing
our breath when we talk. We have been so cold this winter that
feeling comfortable is a dim memory.
Fluffy
is outside shoveling snow as I write this. Children have a snow day
off school today and tomorrow, and even the federal government is
closed, which means the temple is closed. We are socked in,
snow-wise, even though spring is allegedly just around the corner and
temperatures are predicted to be in the fifties just next week.
But
even though snow days like this are rare, the rest of the winter has
been bone-cold. Even indoors I have been so chilled that the only
time life is bearable is when I am swaddled in a blanket, with a
shawl around my shoulders, and Fluffy on one side and a space heater
on the other. Then I feel toasty, but only until Fluffy gets restive
and leaves me so he can do something else.
I
don’t know what people do who do not have a Fluffy and a space
heater. Maybe they are the other ones whose Christmas trees give
them that psychological warmth. There is something about a Christmas
tree that says “happy.” When the summer sun is shining,
people don’t need that extra boost. Now, in the dead of
winter, we need that extra reminder, so Christmas decorations are
staying up longer than normal.
Just
last night, Fluffy went to a meeting in a home that had a Christmas
wreath on the door. No, it wasn’t our house. There was
a little bit of happiness on the front door of that house, and maybe
that went into the inside too. The woman who let him in said, “I
keep wanting to take it down, but my husband says to keep it up a
while longer.”
Christmas
gives us a frame of mind that human beings need as much as we do food
or water. We think kindly of others as we wonder what gifts to buy
for them, and as we wrap and deliver, or even as we make those gifts.
We do good deeds. We make elaborate or not-so-elaborate dinners
that we share with others.
The
bottom line is that we spend time with the people we love, or the
people we should love. We look for the good in each other,
and we celebrate that good in a way that we may not do during the
rest of the year. As we make all these Christmas preparations, the
side-effect is that most of us are happier than we are at any other
time.
We
bask in the joy of Christmas, but then the day passes and then all
too many people pack up the Christmas spirit with their Christmas
ornaments at the end of December. As soon as the trappings of the
holiday are put away, it’s business as usual again. We have
friends who put their Christmas tree out on the curb promptly on
December 26th.
Some
of us have a hard time letting that joy go. We are the ones with
Christmas trees that are still glow warmly into January and February
and even into March. We would still be taking gifts to others, but
the recipients would get that uncomfortable feeling that maybe they
should reciprocate, and that’s the last thing we would want
them to do.
In
a world with so much sorrow and suffering, it may not be bad to wish
that the warm feelings associated with Christmas might extend through
the rest of the year too. Tonight when I go to bed, Handel’s
Messiah will accompany me up the stairs. And even after the
Christmas tree is taken down, I hope that Fluffy and I will live in a
Christmas house this year.
Kathryn H. Kidd has been writing fiction, nonfiction, and "anything for money" longer than
most of her readers have even been alive. She has something to say on every topic, and the
possibility that her opinions may be dead wrong has never stopped her from expressing them at
every opportunity.
A native of New Orleans, Kathy grew up in Mandeville, Louisiana. She attended Brigham
Young University as a generic Protestant, having left the Episcopal Church when she was eight
because that church didn't believe what she did. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints as a BYU junior, finally overcoming her natural stubbornness because she
wanted a patriarchal blessing and couldn't get one unless she was a member of the Church. She
was baptized on a Saturday and received her patriarchal blessing two days later.
She married Clark L. Kidd, who appears in her columns as "Fluffy," more than thirty-five
years ago. They are the authors of numerous LDS-related books, the most popular of which is A
Convert's Guide to Mormon Life.
A former managing editor for Meridian Magazine, Kathy moderated a weekly column ("Circle of Sisters") for Meridian until she was derailed by illness in December of 2012. However, her biggest claim to fame is that she co-authored
Lovelock with Orson Scott Card. Lovelock has been translated into Spanish and Polish, which
would be a little more gratifying than it actually is if Kathy had been referred to by her real name
and not "Kathryn Kerr" on the cover of the Polish version.
Kathy has her own website, www.planetkathy.com, where she hopes to get back to writing a weekday blog once she recovers from being dysfunctional. Her entries recount her adventures and misadventures with Fluffy, who heroically
allows himself to be used as fodder for her columns at every possible opportunity.
Kathy spent seven years as a teacher of the Young Women in her ward, until she was recently released. She has not yet gotten used to interacting with the adults, and suspects it may take another seven years. A long-time home teacher with her husband, Clark, they have home taught the same family since 1988. The two of them have been temple workers since 1995, serving in the Washington D.C. Temple.