Decorations mean more this year
I am not going to lie: this year our Christmas tree was down just a week after the gifts were opened.
It was no big thing. Since the tree was carved out of wood by one of the famed Naugler brothers it only takes a couple of minutes to detach trunk from base, and pull out the branches oneby-one.
I suppose, without saying it, maybe we wanted to put the past year behind us.
A recent garbage day our street looked like an off-brand Hallmark card, lined as it was with dried-out balsam firs, leaning against recycling bins — about as I remember it when it comes to the annual disposal of the trees in our part of Halifax.
I have learned, though, that not everyone is so anxious to bid Christmas farewell.
The first hint came via a Tuesday tweet from District 2 Coun. David Hendsbee after the Halifax Christmas tree left the Grand Parade: “Too bad the City Hall tree doesn’t stay up until after the 12th day of Xmas — The Epiphany — Ole Christmas — Jan. 6,” he said. “It wouldn’t cost us anymore to respect some traditions.”
When I asked around, I discovered that many people do honor Ole Christmas, which
occurred Tuesday, because it marks the Epiphany, the Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation of Jesus Christ as the incarnation of God.
“It is just what we do,” I heard in different forms, over and over again.
An Irish friend pointed out that she has additional reasons for keeping the tree up until that day. Jan. 6, as well as being the last day of Christmas, is also known in her birth country as Nollaig na mBan, or Women’s Christmas, or Little Christmas.
“As a reward for their hard work over the Christmas season,” explained RTÉ, the website of Raidió Teilifís Éireann, Ireland’s National Public Service Media, “it was a day
off from all house work for women and traditional roles were supposed to be reversed in the home; men did the women’s work in the house while women rested and gathered together informally.”
Another friend, whose roots are Ukrainian, told me Tuesday that her tree was also still up, because Jan. 7 was Ukrainian Christmas.
People have their own reasons: someone told me they got their tree up late this year and just wanted to enjoy the spectacle a little longer.
One fellow, who in person sports a beard right out of a medieval Christmas scene, said that he had spent too much decorating his to take it down just yet.
On the other hand, Brendan
McGuire, the MLA for Halifax Atlantic, told me that normally he dismantled his tree down right after Christmas, “but this year it is a nice little positive reminder.”
People echoed that: a distant relative whose tree was also still standing; a friend who splits her time between Toronto and the South Shore; someone I know best on Facebook who said that she was “tempted to leave it up for the rest of the month with just the lights;” a complete stranger who emailed that she often leaves her tree up until Old Christmas but “it seems especially hard to say good bye to it this year.”
Pam Mood, the mayor of Yarmouth, told me that she also normally takes her tree down on New Year’s Day, but not in a year in which her town was hit by COVID, Portapique, and lost six fishermen.
Mood has turned the tree lights on every day, all day.
“It brings me not only peace,” she said, “but silently speaks of the hope of the season, something my town could use right now.”
It isn’t just the trees that have taken on a particular symbolism after the year we’ve had.
In November, Don Mills, a SaltWire columnist, took to Twitter asking people to leave their Christmas lights out longer than usual in the weeks ahead “to brighten our lives during pandemic time.”
He’s leaving his up until the end of January. So, apparently, are many others.
Mary Frier, of Broad Cove, who is leaving her outdoor lights on longer than usual “as a bit of a “Eff You” to the COVID darkness.”
Heather Foster Spidell of St. Margaret’s Bay, whose tree is still up, as are her outdoor lights that give off a “warm glow that is particularly welcome this year.”
Sharon Ganong, of Herring Cove, who plans to replace her multi-coloured outdoor lights with some white ones because, as she explained, “we feel like we could use a bit more light this winter.”
Amen to that Sharon, amen to that.