I
The season of Christmas always meant baking cakes and decorating a Christmas tree for my sister and me. So when December rolled around in 2008, we both got down to decorating the tree. First we had to carefully extract the huge packed tree from the storage space above our wardrobe and then bring down all the boxes filled with decorations.
There were boxes filled with crimson and orange balls, stars, strings of beads in purple, red and golden ribbons, tiny gift boxes and golden bells, and of course Christmas lights. We both had years of practice since we had been decorating the tree ever since we were 7-8 years old. We didn’t even need supervision while using the ladder to reach the top of the tree. As we took the tree out of its packaging, we made sure to clean up all the stray bits that fell off because we would be really tired to do that at the end.
MERRIN ABRAHAM
Merrin completed her Integrated MA in English Studies from IIT Madras. She is a storyteller, bibliomaniac and a lover of indie music who had a passion for the English language that she dedicated her childhood to reading Victorian literature. Besides drinking bitter coffee and analysing Asian media, she is trying to find a horror story worthy of the genre.
We assembled the 3 parts, one on top of the other, after opening all the branches. Once the brunt work was done, it was time for my sister to begin stringing the beads on the tree, which we discovered after a few years of experience, was the hardest part. Every line had to be equally spaced across the tree and you had to calculate how many times the string could go around the tree.
My sister had a knack for doing that, so I kept out of her way, holding the beads behind her as she expertly wove it through all the branches. Once that was done we could have fun with the rest of the decorations. We helped each other space out all the decorations so that nothing overlapped. Finally, after hours of working on the tree, we went around the tree one last time with the Christmas lights. After putting away all the boxes, we sat down next to the Christmas tree, under the Christmas lights, eating freshly baked cake, laughing about the time I got tangled in the string of beads.
II
As a child I seemed to have a lot of energy that couldn’t be channeled into just doing chores around the house. So, when it was December, and I started jumping around the house talking about putting up the Christmas tree, my mum would let me do it right at the beginning of the month. But then, what about the rest of December? There were 2 other wonderful events that would make sure I was occupied for days together – The Inter-church Christmas Carol competition and the Christmas Carol rounds. The competition required all the Sunday School kids and youth of the church to come together and practice and sing every evening at Church until the day before the competition. Of course, the Christmas Carol rounds could happen only after the competition lest someone sing too much and lose their voice before the competition. The years we chose to participate, we always won! The second place in the first year and the first place in the second year.
The real fun started once the Christmas Carol rounds list was put up and my mum gladly bundled us into the school bus and told us to go have as much fun as we wanted. That was the first time I visited so many houses, drank so much tea, ate so much plum cake and sang Feliz Navidad at least a hundred times in one night. We would plan how to surprise the next family, what songs to sing, how to sing it and how much candy the Christmas Father was allowed to give away. As we trudged from one house to the next apartment, I was constantly reminded of the joy that brought us all together to sing and share during this beautiful time in December.
