Tradition | Day 2 Hello, December
How the Evergreen Tree Came to Be Sacred
“The Christmas tree is a symbol of love, not money. There’s a kind of glory to them when they’re all lit up that exceeds anything all the money in the world could buy.”
― Andy Rooney: 60 Years of Wisdom and Wit
Oh, Christmas tree, Oh Christmas tree...
As time carries us through these December days, many of us who grew up with Christmas traditions will decorate nostalgically, in ways that reflect our childhood experiences. The adorned trees surrounded by cascading lights and festive figurines remind us of and connect us to warm memories of children fully grown and family now gone.
Is it any wonder that decorating for the holidays is such a deeply meaningful and well-loved tradition? The feelings we experience hold the power to open our hearts and help us remember.
Most likely, standing regally in the corner of your living room or centered proudly in the middle of your picture window is the Christmas tree.
How lovely are your branches…
Some believe the holiday season officially begins when the Christmas tree lights up the sky at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Traditionally, the tree is displayed from early December until the first week in January.
However, the Christmas tree did not start out as a decoration to honor the Christmas season.
Far from it.
For hundreds, even thousands of years, evergreen trees and branches were used by people all over the world during winter rituals as a reminder that the earth would thaw and the light would return.
The evergreen was honored as a symbol of life that promised no matter how dark or long the night, the sun would rise once again.
Your lights are shining brightly.
History peppered with mythology tells us how the evergreen tree became a Christmas symbol, and the truth is, that doesn’t really matter here…
except for this.
If December finds you disconnected from a spiritual community, or if you prefer to practice your spirituality on your own terms, may you take comfort in knowing that the tree you have so lovingly placed at the center of your home carries the wisdom of the ancients and a tradition of hope for tomorrow, when the color of green abounds on the lands as the days get longer.
The Christian, the non-Christian, the spiritual-but-not-religious, the doubter, the agnostic, the atheists, and those with other beliefs about who or what God is can lay claim to the mystical power and connection of our common humanity through our love for the Christmas tree…
Or perhaps it is simply a winter’s eve tree.
We honor our shared humanity when we allow this tree to represent what endures, what returns, and what still grows within us.
Hello, December.
Your evergreen whispers that life endures,
and invites you to remember what still grows within you.
Authors Note:
I first wrote Hello, December in 2017, when I was still learning how to move through this month without the traditions and beliefs I had begun to release. Those early writings became a companion—something steady to hold while I navigated gatherings, expectations, and memories without the old roadmap that once guided me.
As I’ve deconstructed, healed, and released the final tethers of my Christian heritage, these writings have grown with me. This edition is for the unchurched, the spiritually curious, those healing from religion, and anyone who feels the ache, the beauty, or the disorientation December so often brings.
These writings are simply an invitation to honor this month in a way that feels honest, human, and yours.
That tree carries more mileage than any doctrine ever has. Long before anyone argued about who owned December, people were dragging evergreens inside just to remind themselves the world wasn’t done with them yet. Kind of nice knowing one symbol can hold everyone without needing a membership card.
Christainity is like country western music it took absorb/borrowed from other elements and then in coperated those elements into Christian symbols. Christmas it self was sorta cooked up by the Romans as biblical scholars seem to believe Jesus the Christ of Nazareth was born in the spring but fit with the Roman holiday Saturnalia. It was merely a Pope decree (supposely by Julius the 1st)that said Jesus was born on December 25. But none the less here I am taking comfort in the warmth of family holiday traditions, and looking forward to the smells of the holidays. Christmas tide is a feast for the senses. Will point out that not all Christian celebrate Christmas on the same date mainly due to switching of Julius Calendar to Gregorian.