Farewell to Christmas

Twelfth Night was the official farewell to Christmas.  Today I start taking down my Christmas tree, and this will be the emotional finale for the season.  I will genuinely miss the cheery lights and memory-laden ornaments.  But this also means that in just a few months, both Christmas and the tree will come again!

During the interval, i.e., over the next eleven months, I'll see about adding to my ornament collection, which is growing nicely.  This year I picked up a couple new ones not mentioned in my earlier "tree" post.  One is a Great Wall of China ornament found at Bronner's in Frankenmuth.  It's not a very artistic portrayal of the Wall (even if made in China, like most ornaments these days) but it does show a watch tower and short sections of the Wall on either side.  This gives my grandfather his perch on my tree.  I also went looking for a black angel and found one in a small, obscure corner of Bronner's, labeled "African."  Have you ever noticed how most of the angels shown in European and North American art appear to be Caucasians?  Even the Holy Family looks rather WASPy.  Christmas decorations follow the same pattern.  Christmas is the perfect moment to celebrate racial and ethnic diversity, but we are still stuck in our pasty ruts.

The Great Wall, somewhat artlessly rendered.

An "African" angel.

I have a small selection of crocheted snowflakes which I acquired from one of my parishioners at St. Columba, Detroit, a quarter century ago.  They are delicate and quite beautiful.  Why don't we see them offered for sale more often at, say, craft fairs?  Maybe crocheting has become a lost art.  I think they would sell like hot cakes.

One of my crocheted snowflakes... or is it a star?

This year I experimented with making my own dried orange slice ornaments.  They're really quite easy — just take thin slices of an orange (about 1/4 inch), place them on an ungreased cookie sheet, blot any excess moisture, and then dry them in an oven at low heat (200 degrees) for 2-3 hours.  They are handsome, traditional, and remind me of Florida.

A dried orange slice.

Like much of Michigan, we've had very little snow here.  There is hardly a half-inch on the ground, and no immediate promise of more.  The jet stream is not being cooperative this year, and tourism in northeastern Lower Michigan will suffer as a result.  However, there are compensations.  This morning about 4:00 we had partly cloudy skies and a lovely moon over Lake Esau.

Moonlight on Lake Esau.

Happy Epiphany, everyone!