'Tis the Season...When Everything Rhymes

Written December 1996 during a bout of "rhyming". This affliction seemed to hit me acutely at Christmastime, then after the holiday, I could speak "normal" again.

It's the first day of December,

And all through our house

Are the beginnings of Christmas

Even a garage with a mouse.

It is now Sunday eve.

It's a nice place to start

This season of Christ's birth

And opening wider all hearts.

We've had three Santa helpers

Here to see us already,

With a tree, trimmings, treats,

Tree's up and holding steady.

I whipped up some "magic" snow

Like my mother used to do.

These kids were delighted, 

Places un-"snowed" now are few.

Topher read from the scriptures.

We lighted a candle,

Sang some Christmas sing-a-longs

And hung stockings from the mantle.

This is just enough excitement

To hyper up this bunch.

Now if I don't get dinner going,

I'll be in a real time crunch.

About the "magic" snow...when I was a child, Mother always "snowed" our Christmas tree. The first step in the process was, of course, to get a tree up in the house, always in the same spot in our small living room--the corner between the front door and a side door, no longer being used as an entry. Mother's winter drapes had a dark red large leaf and flower pattern so the room was already dressed in Christmas colors. My dad would bring in the tree 'planted' in a silver bucket. The two of them would discuss the best angle of the tree to have facing into the room. Dad always seemed to find at least a couple of branches not to his liking so he'd cut them off where they grew, drill (with a hand apparatus) a hole in the tree's trunk where he thought he could improve on God's creation, and wire the branch in place. When he was satisfied with his handiwork, the ball was back in Mother's court. She used an old time soap product, Lux Flakes. This was mixed in a bucket with just the right amount of water so when whipped, by hand or with an egg beater--you know, the non-electric thing-a-ma-jig with two moving parts that turn and whirl as the user cranks a handle attached on the side--you got a like-whipped-cream result.

Let the messy fun begin! Starting at the top of the tree, Mother would scoop up a mound, as much as she could, then grasping a branch close to the trunk, she'd pull her hand out to the tip of the branch, depositing that whipped soap as she went. She did this with each branch. While it was still damp, back up on a chair or ladder she'd go and sprinkle from the top, what she called 'Santa Snow'--flakes of something iridescent or translucent that would catch the light to give the entire tree the appearance, that 'twinkling', of having just been dusted in a recent snowfall. It really was "magical"!

Dad may have put lights on the tree, those really big ones but what I remember more is Mother standing for hours, or so it seemed, placing real foil icicles, one by one by one over the entire tree, icicles carefully put away after each use and saved to use again from year to year. She often strung popcorn as trim. If she had saved bits of foil wrappers from candy or whatever, she rolled those into a tight ball and strung them, too. She had a few treasured real ornaments but mostly, she created her own illusion of a beautiful tree. Her "snowed" tree made a lasting impression and has become a part of the tradition and memory that is a part of me.