My Favorite Christmas Part II

(To see My Favorite Christmas Part I click here.)  There’s this book.  Kind of random, actually.  It’s not spiffy and shiny and new.  But my dad got it when he was in preschool. (Preschool. That would be about 1963).  We still have the original book, though the binding has seen better days.  It’s about this old, rich man, Mr. Willowby, who gets his Christmas tree delivered to his mansion, but once they put it up it is too tall.  So the butler chops off the top and presents it to Miss Adelaide.  Oh, but it’s too tall in her place, too.  So she chops the top off and throws it out, but then Timm the gardener passes it by and takes it to his home, and it goes on and on, to Barnaby Bear, Frisky Fox, Benjamin Rabbit, and Mistletoe Mouse.  And at the end you see Mr. Willowby sleeping in a chair by his tree, and Mistletoe Mouse and his family in a little hole in Mr. Willowby’s wall, dancing around their own tree.

(image courtesy of http://aquilterschristmas.blogspot.com/)

And every year we have read this book, and every year we have had our tree bend over at the top.  We’ve NEVER had a star gracing the tip of our tree–and I love it that way.  And when we built our new house when I was growing up, and the living room then had 16 foot ceilings, we just got a really, really tall tree.  And for years we had a hole in the top of that 16 foot ceiling, from a tree being just a tad bit too tall.  And every year we read the story, and see our bent tree top, and remember the spirit of giving at Christmastime, and try to do at least a little good for another family in need.