MY CHRISTMAS TREE

In New Zealand we always had a real Christmas tree. In fact the smell I associate with Christmas is a mixture of pine and Christmas lilies (Christmas comes in the middle of Summer in New Zealand.) But in Japan I have a 2 meter high fake tree. A couple of days ago, with some help of my neighbor, I took it out of the box and hung the decorations on it . After all, it's nearly December!


Some tree ornaments get passed down through families. They can develop histories and nostalgic associations. Like, "this one is cracked because Uncle George stood on it when he was a little boy, but Grandpa glued it together again," and "Auntie Mary made this angel at school when she was only seven years old."

I don't have those kind of tree ornaments... but in my third Christmas in Japan I had a tree decorating origami party with some Japanese friends. We made lots of origami ornaments out of pretty paper and I've used them every year since then. There is an origami Santa Claus, and a candle, and several cranes and balls, but my absolute favorite is the origami reindeer one friend made using a book she borrowed from the library.

Now whenever I see my origami ornaments I remember that party, and think of the friends who helped make my Japanese Christmas tree special.