Taking the sad away

Christmas has come and gone, but we still have our decorations up.  When I was growing up my mother would insist on taking everything down the day after the holiday.  "It's too sad to keep up" she would say.

I say the opposite.  It's too joyful to take down.  I plan on keeping the tree up until at least mid-January, when the branches have drooped and the needles are falling into piles on the floor.  Then we will carefully pack each ornament, each string of lights into their boxes and bring them back down to the basement.

It has been a melancholy Christmas for us.  My father, the best person I have ever known in my short life, passed away unexpectedly in the middle of this month.  At the funeral my youngest son, my six-year-old Benjamin, clung to his favorite cousin and said "this is the saddest day of my life."  Me too, little mouse.

And so the Christmas tree will stay up.  And the bells, and the candles, and the lights.  And maybe they will help take a little of the sad away as we head into the new year.