Charlie Brown Christmas

Heirloom Decorations  

Baking Smells that ONLY happen during THAT time of year  

Personal Stockings that have always been used  

Family  

Friends  

Home Churches

Comfy Beds

Advent Books laid out in a basket in the living room

These are the things that create Christmas in our home. Or, at least, when we aren't moving during the holiday season.  Every time we move, we find ourselves making do over the holidays. The very first Christmas in the Orient was just the beginning.  

I think having our daughter made it imperative to have Christmas even though we had nothing.  I desperately wanted a tree.  I didn't really care what kind of tree.  Just any tree was what I was looking for at that point.  Being in the land of No Christmas, real trees were out of the question.  The faux trees were painfully picked over.  Pushing our daughter in the shopping cart at the BX, we desperately looked for ANYTHING that would work.  That was when we found it:  Our "Charlie Brown Tree."  

It was a small table top tree with lights.  Horrendously tacky...but oh so perfect at the same time.  The fact that it was one of the LAST trees in the store really helped our decision to buy it.  At the time, we felt that it was just a stand in for our "real" Christmas tree that was somewhere on a slow boat heading our direction.  But that little tree, while our original plan was to donate it to the Airmen's Attic, has stayed with us through multiple moves.

The quest for something pretty to put on our Charlie Brown Tree was comical.  Due to its petite size, we had to find ornaments that didn't cause it to fall over.  Glass balls were out for the very reason that A- THEY WERE GLASS and B- their size would tip the tree over.  Less than a week to Christmas, the ornaments were the poor little rejects that no one wanted.  At that point, feeling a little dejected myself, I kind of understood how they must be feeling, left behind on the barren shelves the way they were.

After looking through the "leftovers" for a while, we found them!  They were tiny and simple!  Very basic wooden ornaments in a pretty and endearingly primitive style, we decided that they were perfect for our Charlie Brown Tree!  Honestly, they made me smile.  While no one else wanted them, they were finding a home with us.  With an odd feeling of accomplishment, we bought them and walked home.

Though we entered a barren home with cement floors, I felt like we had finally brought something personal into it.  Because we only had the borrowed dining room table, my engineer and I decided to do Christmas tree decorating the day before Christmas.  Even though we knew it wouldn't take long to do, we wanted it to be special none the less.  Making hot chocolate (despite the 80F+ weather outside), we set up our little tree and made it pretty with our delightful little wooden rejects.  

I remember standing back and looking at that little tree.  In so many ways, it represented how I felt at that moment.  In a house that I was going to have to work very hard to make a home, living with borrowed household goods, far from anything that was familiar, and not knowing anyone....AT ALL....that humble little tree looked like our life at the moment.  

Our Christmas was simple and beautiful that year.  Though we didn't have much, we had each other.  My Angel didn't know anything was unusual.  She had everything she wanted and wanted everything she had.  Taking a page out of her book, my engineer and I worked to feel the same.

Our very first Charlie Brown Christmas was actually the beginning of a family tradition for us.  Every time we move, we always have Christmas either with nothing or in a hotel room.  We have actually gotten pretty creative with it.  With every move, I now choose a handful of ornaments to stash in my suitcase.  While I do not know what I will be putting them on, it is a little piece of "tradition" that carries over from year to year that brings continuity where there normally wouldn't be any.  Our Charlie Brown Christmases have a very special place in my heart.  Though we may be "homeless," we have each other...and that is good.