A Christmas Tree Reflection

I love Christmas. There is a feeling you get only once a year and that is on Christmas Day. If there was a single word to describe that feeling you get when you wake up on Christmas Day, I wouldn't hesitate to use it. But it is a rare feeling that no one ever mentions.

I had my first taste of that feeling yesterday. I came home from college at 5 o'clock. I got the bus on my own, when it was dark and quiet and cold. Even though there were a lot of people on the bus I felt isolated. Isolated is the wrong word; it suggests unpleasantness. I felt solitary and reflective. I looked out the window and to my delight I saw a Christmas tree in the window of a nearby house. Out of my bus window I kept looking for more Christmas trees, and felt mildly delighted when I spotted the neon fibres or the fairy lights that indicated a Christmas tree.

People put Christmas trees in the window a lot. In our house we don't. We put it in the far corner, because our windows are planar so they do not bulge out of the facade of the house. I suppose people lucky enough to have windows like that would take advantage of the space in the window for a Christmas tree. But we don't. I wondered about it. Wouldn't the tree block out the light from the window? Even when you look into the window from outside (or from inside my bus), you can perceive the shape of a Christmas tree by its shadow as well as the lights that adorn it. But then I went back and reasoned that there wouldn't be much light from the window in winter anyway. And the lights on the tree would be compensatory as well as eyecatchingly pretty.

I counted eighteen Christmas trees on the way home.

My Mam bought a new Christmas tree on Monday with her 20% staff discount from ASDA. Usually we have a plain artificial tree and we decorate it with the baubles we have kept for years. But my Mam always hangs the decorations that me and my sisters made on it. They date back to nursery school, and are sentimental but not very pretty. This time my Mam has said she will only put a few of the homemade decorations on it. It already has gold ribbons and baubles on it, so I'm glad she made that decision.

Our sitting room will be lit up like magic when I go home. And I'll relive that taster of Christmas.