The Perfect Tree

One year when my boys were in middle school I was a bit tired of all the holiday season commercialism.  I have always decorated my Christmas tree with beautiful ornaments that I collected over the years and I wanted to do something different this year. Something that would help our family think about what is important during the holiday season.

When my sons came home from school I told them I did not want to get my ornaments out. I thought we should decorate the tree with red hearts. And on each red heart I wanted all of us to write something or someone we were thankful for.

I had a large heart paper punch and I started making hearts. And to my amazement as fast as I could make the hearts they would write who or what they were thankful for. Our tree became full of red hearts which made me smile.  They were so excited to do this exercise and their words were so special that to this day  I still have every heart.

The tree ended up being one of our most beautiful trees. And more people enjoyed that tree then the ones full of my beautiful ornaments. It made for a very special Christmas.

Years later a friend's husband died right before the holidays.  She, also, had collected ornaments throughout their life together. She did not know how she would get through Christmas. So I packed up the heart punch and the red paper and  I explained my idea. I told her to cut out many hearts and invite her friends and family to fill them out with things they loved and remember about her husband. She loved the idea and soon her tree was covered in beautiful hearts. The tree helped her get through that difficult Christmas.