One of my favourite memories from my childhood has to do with walking home from school in the semi-darkness (Northern Ontario) and seeing the Christmas tree lit up in the window of the manse where we  lived. I am not sure if this is entirely accurate – but in my memory my brother and I stopped walking, marveled at the lights and then entered the house to discover that our father had baked fresh bread that day. The lights of the tree and the smell of fresh baked bread are the sights and smells of home, Christmas, safety and love to me.

So when I moved into my own manse (which reminds me of the manse of my childhood) at the beginning of 2011, I knew I would be decorating BIG for Christmas this year. In the summer, I happened upon a yardsale in which I found a pre-lighted Christmas tree and decorations for $10. It was too good to pass up. I handed over my $10 and grinned at the thought of having more than one Christmas tree this year.

So this is my designer-tree. All of the decorations match (admittedly the angel doesn’t, but the other one was too big for this little tree), it’s all done up in silver, and dark blue and turquoise. It’s lovely. And I bet it looks kind of awesome when you are driving by outside.

Tomorrow I will decorate my other tree. Nothing will match, the colours will be all over the map. I bet there wont’ be enough lights and the angel will be too big. But it will honour all my other Christmas memories. The decorations range from the glass balls my parents bought during their first Christmas together, to ones I was given last year as a gift.

Both of these trees are significant to me. Both call to mind precious memories. And both are completely different from each other. I feel blessed to have both of them.

I hope the one in the window will create memories for those who see it shining through the dark nights of December!