Christmas Star

Before I get too into today’s thought I want to go back and write a word about yesterday’s blog title, “Mysterious Cuts”. I just want to say that I think that would be a pretty cool band name; or maybe, “Michael and the Mysterious Cuts”.

The Christmas Star. I was reminded of it this morning as I was driving the snowy roads into work. I don’t mean the literal biblical Christmas star that shined above the little baby Jesus’ manger. I mean the star Christmas tree topper my family used for years. It was a groovy looking thing, plastic and quite thin. It had a stained glass quality but was the furthest thing from actual glass. I have no idea where my parents bought it but it drove my sister and me nuts as children.

Every year we had to alternate whose turn it was to place the star on the tree. My mother, I believe, came up with the ingenious solution to sharing the star by placing one of our names in the star’s base; meaning that was the child whose turn it was to put the star on the tree that year.  As children, trying to remember whose turn it was after a whole year was incredibly difficult. So every time the name was pulled out it was either met with complete joy or something a little less than joy.

I was thinking about that exuberance as I drove in this morning. It was the high point of decorating the Christmas tree to be the one to top it off with that cheesy star. Of course the star wasn’t cheesy to us then. It was quite possibly the most precious object known to our little minds. I certainly had no idea what the value of the star was, but I knew what it meant to be the lucky one to place that star on the tree.  There was something important about it, a significance I can no longer comprehend because I’ve gotten too old to remember. I probably won’t remember it until I have children of my own and I see the anticipation on their little faces.

I think at that moment I’ll be transported back to six or seven years old and understand again the magic that is Christmas. I’ll be reminded that it’s more than just gifts or getting people things they want. (Although it’s nice to get people things they like or need). I think I’ll be reminded that putting a star on a tree makes you part of the holiday at a time when you didn’t have your own money or bank statements to worry about.  That cheap plastic star, or angel or Warner Brother’s character that adorns the top of the tree is made of the Christmas spirit and there’s no gift or toy or sweater that will ever take that magic away.

Merry Christmas everybody!