The Christmas Tree Angel

Star or angel?  That was the big question the first year Ginger and I were married as we prepared to celebrate our first Christmas.  With what should the Christmas tree be topped?  My family tradition was an angel; Ginger’s, a star.  The tradition did not run terribly deep on either side.

Growing up, my family’s tree had been topped with an angel.  It had not always been so, though.  The tradition was not inviolable.  After all, the Christmas tree in my earliest memories was aluminum with a color wheel.  Very modern.  Ginger, whose family always had a real tree, albeit the ugliest cedar tree that could be found, was appalled.  And the tradition at my grandparents’ houses differed.  One had a very fancy angel with a gold dress.  I think it lit up.  The other had a homemade star cut from cardboard and covered with aluminum foil.  Perhaps my mother, or aunt, or one of my uncles had made it in childhood.  I never really knew.  I suspect my grandmother was behind it.

Ginger’s family had a star.  It wasn’t a big deal to them, however.  No one can even remember now what it looked like.

That is a good thing.  Because I had my heart set on an angel.  Ginger was perfectly fine with that.  But no cheesy angels.  Nothing aluminum.  Unlighted was preferred.

So off we set that first December of our married lives in search of an angel.  There was not as big a selection in those days as I suspect there would be now.  We went to many stores in search of the perfect angel for the top of our first Christmas tree.  Nothing met the test.

Finally, we went to a little store we knew to have lots of interesting things, many of them imported, off the main street in Charlottesville, where we lived.  There we found a selection of beautiful angels.  I think they had been made in Germany.  That suited Ginger, who had been collecting ornaments from Germany since a trip there before we were married.  They had velvet dresses and hand-crafted faces.  Each had a candle in her hand.  Real wax.  They would do.

There was one problem, which was the price.  I was a student that year and money was definitely an issue.  We didn’t even look at the larger angels.  A smaller one would be fine.  The one we liked was $14.

Now, $14 doesn’t sound like a lot now, but to a student and his new wife in 1979 it was a fortune.  We debated a long time.  We knew we shouldn’t, but we bought it anyway.  Somehow, setting the Christmas traditions for a brand new family seemed like a very important thing to us.  I suppose it was an investment in Christmas.

That first Christmas together, we may not have been able to afford much to go under the tree, but we had a $14 angel with a red velvet dress and a real wax candle, and just as importantly without lights or anything aluminum, to go on top of it.  This year, that angel will be on top of its 33rd tree, which will go up this weekend by tradition.  (Don’t tell the Advent police.)

Christmas has always required an investment, quite often a very heavy one.  Mary and Joseph made a massive investment in the first Christmas.  Luke tells us that they left their home in Nazareth and traveled to Joseph’s ancestral home many miles away at a time when Mary was about to deliver her child.  It was an extravagant investment.

The angels announced the birth to the shepherds.  Though they were afraid, they left and went to see the child.  Extravagant investment.

The Magi set out from some distant place in the East in search of the child born to be king of the Jews.  They brought expensive gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  They would have made the $14 angels look, justifiably, like nothing.  Extravagant investment.

What I suspect is that making the investment itself made a great difference to the importance of that first Christmas to Mary and Joseph, to the shepherds, and to the Magi.  The $14 investment in the angel has obviously meant a great deal to Ginger and me.  The level of investment we make in something, including Christmas, always determines a great deal of what it will mean to us.  The more extravagant, the more it means.

Christmas now rolls around again.  What it will mean to us depends a great deal on the investment we decide to make.  It always has and it always will.  I think I’m of the opinion that an extravagant investment is well worth it.

As the days leading up to Christmas begin to pass us by, I’m hoping for extravagant investment of myself, something much more important than $14.  My wish for you is the same.

Peace,

+Stacy

(Alas, there is no picture of the actual $14 angel, so we'll have to make do with pictures of other tree-topper angels.)