The holiday season is over, and the best evidence for that are the discarded Christmas trees that lie forlornly along the sidewalks in front of our homes as they await pick-up by our DPW workers.
We do not want to overstate it, but it seems incongruous for our Christmas trees to suffer such an ignominious fate. It was only a few days before that they stood as the center of attention in our homes, gaily decorated with ornaments and lights, shimmering throughout the day and night, and bringing immense joy for all to behold.
Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, every discarded Christmas tree was still streaming with silver and gold tinsel. But we’ve noticed that Christmas trees these days do not have as much tinsel (if any at all) as when we were kids — which is a good thing. The tinsel back then apparently was full of lead (ugh!) and today’s tinsel is made of PVC, which is not recyclable.
But now our trees lie abandoned, devoid of any ornamentation and, depending on how long they’ve been without water, starting to turn brown.
Yet despite our trees’ bare appearance on the cold, windswept sidewalks, one thing remains: The wonderful memories they created when our children — and we ourselves — scurried to the Christmas tree room on Christmas Day.
Those memories will last a lifetime, both for ourselves and our children — for which we owe our now-abandoned Christmas trees our everlasting gratitude.