Daughter of Claus: Day XXI
Magic in transience
On the jukebox: One More Sleep by Leona Lewis
This is the last of three posts by my family living at Stempster, in Caithness. This post has been written by my sister, Judith (or Diff). You can find Judith at her blog here, or at Crowvus here.
There’s a fantastic Christmas episode of (the original) All Creatures Great and Small where, with Christmas on the horizon, Siegfried announces that, with war in Europe looming ahead of them, he is determined that those at Skeldale House will have a big, traditional Christmas. At his urging, they begin the festivities by gathering greenery for the house.
There is a long association with evergreen trees at this time of year, dating back to Pagan Times, as Cole Hawlings would say. At Stempster, the skeletal fingertips of our large sycamores stretch out in the garden and the field, but we are still blessed with greenness. Many spruce trees form the wood (although far fewer than there were, since they were thinned out earlier this year); the little cypress and baby Araucaria are small but colourful; the yew has enjoyed a second lease of life; and, of course, holly and ivy abound.
Like Siegfried, James and Tristan, we three sisters set out to gather Christmas greenery this year. In previous houses, that has involved the occasional modest but stylishly placed sprig of holly or twist of ivy. Not so at Stempster. Here, we cut vast amounts of greenery and Clemency forms them into majestic boughs which are now stretching across various high surfaces in the house. There are also sprigs of holly behind many of the pictures in the gallery and we are even attempting an outside tree this year because one of the cuttings qualifies!
In the lead up to Christmas, the greenery shines, catching the light on the waxy fullness of its leaves and needles. By new year, it will be starting to look tired and, come Twelfth Night when it all comes down, the challenge is always keeping it whole enough to remove without leaving dry and crispy stragglers behind. It burns well on a January bonfire.
Each year, we buy a new Christmas bauble and, among our more venerable decorations, we each have our favourites. No one puts the Mr Men baubles on the tree apart from me; and the little hat which must once have belonged to a Santa ornament is my responsibility too: I place it on a dark green part of the tree and name it The Grinch. This started long before it became popular to have actual ornaments with The Grinch on them!
But, despite my enduring relationship with so many annually recurring ornaments, there is something so deeply spiritual about the greenery which decks the halls. Perhaps it is knowing that – just like the loved ones who have shared or continue to share our Christmases – each bough, each sprig, and each leaf is so utterly unique that they will never appear again. There is magic in transience at this liminal time of the year.
I would love to hear about your own Christmas folklore and memories. Have you ever gathered greenery for decoration at Christmas?