Oh, Christmas Tree

I wasn’t planning to write for a few days because I know everyone is busy with the holidays. However, I was cuddling Little Bear and meandering through Christmas memories and thought up this true story.:

I used to love decorating for Christmas. I had a nice (artificial) tree with beautiful lights and decorations. I’d turn off the lamps and we would enjoy the beautiful glow of the tree. My young son and I used to lay on the floor with our heads under the tree and enjoy the beautiful decorations from the inside.

One cold December evening about 14 years ago, we heard a loud caterwauling outside the front door. When we opened the door a tiny black ball of fluff climbed up our leg. It was a tiny kitten. We took him in and called him “Little Bear” because he looked like a tiny bear cub.

The other cats left the Christmas tree alone (mostly) but Little Bear loved climbing it and poking his head out of the branches. He constantly knocked decorations off the tree, which I patiently picked up and hung back up.

After a couple of Christmas seasons, I tired of constantly picking up decorations from the floor so whenever LIttle Bear knocked one off, I’d pick it up and put it in a box. By Christmas Day, the tree was devoid of decorations.

One year I decided it was fruitless to put any decorations on the tree at all. Besides, it was beautiful with just lights. But as Little Bear climbed the tree, half the lights went out—and then the other half. I spent hours trying to restore the lights…only to have Little Bear knock them out again.

So one year I thought, “I’ll just put up the decoration-less, light-less tree and let Little Bear enjoy climbing it. Which he did.

Finally, the tree was broken beyond repair. It was tilted at an odd angle. The branches were permanently flattened and bent. After Christmas had passed, we threw out the tree. We didn’t get another.

Instead, we cuddle Little Bear, now grown old, as we watch the snow outside decorating the pine trees in the forest with snowflakes.