Because my tree goes in the corner of the room I usually don't add the branches round the back, instead I put them between the branches already fixed in place at the front in order to give the tree some fullness. Occasionally I fasten these with parcel ties but when I get fed up I just balance them. I add the lights next and use a net because it's easier. and remember that if you are using a light net, you needed to put the tinsel on first. Finally I hang baubles and scented angels who no longer smell. This year having completed my task some two and a half hours after beginning it, I got the vacuum cleaner out to hoover up the hundreds of green bits which had dropped from the synthetic tree. It's quite a good vacuum cleaner so when I ran over the wire to the lights, it sucked it up and began wrapping it round the rotating brushes. I tried to stamp on the off lever but only managed to hit the handle release and lie the hoover flat on the floor where it continued to wrap the wire round its spinning brushes. By the time I had managed to stand on the off switch, the tree was no longer up and the lights were no longer on.
It made me reflect on how much Christmas sucks people's resources and topples their ideals.
It's not what's supposed to happen at Christmas but if you get the true meaning all tangled up in the whirr and noise of trying to keep things organised, I'm afraid it's a likely consequence.
The first Christmas wasn't tidy. There was no room to stay in and no cot to sleep in. The floor was probably a mess and quite likely worse things than plastic green bits were strewn across it. But the thing about Christmas is that light came down. Not by accident, but very deliberately. Jesus is the light of the world, he came down to earth to untangle the mess we're in. I love Christmas even when I take my tree down as soon as I've put it up. I know the light of the world has shone in my heart and it means I understand the happiness of Christmas every day of the year.
