A Different Kind of Christmas Tree

Yesterday two of my granddaughters shut me out of my lounge for an hour or so. When they eventually allowed me in, I found that they'd had a great time decorating the room with a box of old Christmas trappings. There were three Christmas trees—a miniature artificial tree, another which bore a marked resemblance to a reading lamp in disguise and the third the wire tree in the photo below.

Definitely not your traditional Christmas tree

I bought this tree a few years ago from a man whose shopfront was the the side of the road. The patch of grass nearby was his workshop.The vendor and his friends sat in the hot African sun and twisted lengths of wire together into the intricate patterns which form their wares. These trees are very versatile as they can be dressed up with bows, sweets, trinkets, tinsel, Easter eggs, chocolate—in fact with anything that takes your fancy—to grace any occasion.

The two girls made the hearts out of strips of cardboard. The little angels swinging on the tree are made of dried banana leaves and bring back happy memories of a visit to the tearoom where we bought them.

Banana leaf angel with her harp

The bead figurines below are generally to be found hanging among the branches, but for this season they are standing beneath the tree, adding to the overall African feel of the tree.

Bead figurines

But the thing I love most about the tree is the star, made simply of two bottle tops, glitter and tinsel.

A very special star

Jenni, my younger daughter, made this star many years ago when she was a preschooler. This will be Jenni's second Christmas in heaven, so the star is of great sentimental value to me. It's also a reminder of the wise men's visit to Jesus, but, more than that, it reminds me that God sent His only Son to this earth to die on the cross. As the Bible says in  in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."  Because of this, I know Jenni is alive and well in heaven and that I will see her again. 

Thank you for your great love, Lord God.

Thank you for decorating my lounge, Erin and Taryn, I love it!

If you have a non-traditional Christmas tree, please tell us about it in the comments section.