Flâneur Gardening

>-Or at least, it will be soon!

The solstice was celebrated by having a good friend over for dinner and yesterday was the shortest day of the year and flew buy with a busy day at work, so with these two out of the way it’s now really beginning to be Christmas.

In Denmark we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, and I grew up with the tradition that the Christmas tree was only brought inside on the morning of the 24th and should be out again before New Year; a fleeting visit but all the more special for its brevity.

Well, I wanted a tree this year, and since we won’t be spending Christmas in the summer house I decided to get one two weekends ago, carrying it on my back the three miles from the local timber store to our house while a gentle snow was falling. Très old school, if I might say so myself.

This is what it ended up looking like:

It’s a bit on the small side; my dad taught me that the top star should always reach the ceiling, and that meant my childhood trees were always 7-8ft high. This one is more like 5’10”, but then the summer house is a small house and the small tree looks just right.

In all of Scandinavia there is a tradition for home made tree ornaments, mainly made from glossy paper. Woven paper hearts and stars feature heavily on Christmas trees throughout the region, and I’m very much sticking to this tradition, with only a few purchased glass baubles and of course the candle holders.

Candle holders? Why, yes! A Christmas tree should be light by candles, and mine will always be. It’s not Christmas without that special glow of a candle-light tree. (Though I’m sure some might argue that it also adds to the thrill of the season to stick live candles on a dry tree decorated with paper… Firetrap, anyone?)

The heart above is the quintessential Christmas heart. Two strips of paper that are folded, cut and woven together in a simple checkerboard pattern. However, no two hearts on my tree are alike, and the heart below shows how one can easily vary the pattern just by playing around with the weaving.

Also in the picture above is a woven paper cone. My mother claims not to know anybody who makes these, though in fact it was her father who taught me to make them. I haven’t seen them anywhere else, but I find the harlequin pattern absolutely beautiful so ever since my first “own” Christmas tree in 2001 these have been a feature on my tree.

The crowning glory is the top star. An over-sized folded paper star, that is really a lot simpler to make than it looks. In Denmark you see 5-year olds making these…

Beside the glass baubles and the candle holders, the only two ornaments I haven’t made myself are a little paper silhouette of an angel (that looks a lot more like a fairy to me with its dragon fly wings) that used to belong to my great-grandmother and a small straw star that I think my mother or one of my uncles made as a kid. I forgot to take pictures of these, though, so this will be all from me this side of Christmas.

Here’s wishing you all a merry Yuletide and a happy New Year.