The enduring joy of being a tree angel

HOW I loved watching my three grandchildren in different Christmas shows.

The nursery Nativity featured four-year-old Max dressed as one of the Three Kings, in a costume (complete with crown) I had created with love.

Then came Chloe (seven), all blinged-up as the Star of Bethlehem, no less, singing, dancing and leading her year’s Three Kings all around the school hall.

How can you stop your eyes filling when children sing Away In A Manger? How to express the depths of emotion/history/ faith/memory/love carried within the words?

Grandson Barney’s primary school did a show instead of a Nativity — a heart-warming celebration of kindness with a joyful message of peace and love.

Children read out their messages of gratitude and prayers for the world — protecting trees and animals and feeding the hungry. Hooray for that!

In fact, hooray for all of it. And for all the beautiful children, bringing tears to the eyes of the parents and grandparents who were watching, full of love, pride and hope.

The message embodied in the Christian Christmas story is universal: the angels, the mother, the baby, the good news.

Each year, I make a point of reading the version of it in the Koran — which has the angel Gabriel telling Mary (Maryam) that she will bear a son, even though she is chaste, describes her married to the carpenter Joseph, and then bearing her baby in the shelter of a palm tree which gives her food as well.

So — trees in the prayers of children, a tree taking care of Mary and the Christmas tree glittering in our sitting room lead me to the Mail’s inspiring Be A Tree Angel campaign.

And the happy thought that all those trees planted by so many readers and orchards planned at over 3,000 schools (thanks to the generosity of donors such as Richard Caring and Alan Sugar) and the leafy spread of awareness achieved by our campaign will endure.

For the trees will grow tall for our children, enhancing our world. Happy Christmas!

Bel answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, london W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co. uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.