Bo and I love Christmas. It’s not because of the presents,
cooking good food, or visiting with friends and family, though we do enjoy these
things. Neither is it the spiritual aspect, since we are both atheists. No, we
love Christmas because every morning we get to get up and turn on the tree.
It’s an odd ritual, that no matter how bleary or hungover we are, can always
tug the corners of our lips.
Let me explain.
In our family the holiday season only really gets rolling
when the tree is up, which usually happens not long after Thanksgiving with a
visit to a local tree farm, where we pick out and cut down our own tree. Once
the tree is installed, we put on a Christmas movie like Die Hard or The Ref,
and decorate.
This year we watched the Nick Offerman’s Yule Log,
a departure from the norm, but a pleasant diversion since we are big fans of
Parks and Rec. Over the next couple of
hours we unpack three decades worth of ornaments given to each of us since we
were infants and hang them on the tree.
The result is a wonderful cultural smear that from a distance
looks like an ordinary tree complete with the little baubles and characters
that you would find on most trees. On closer inspection though you find that
some the angels are a little different, or that the bulbs have dirty works
written on them. The drummer boy and nutcracker hang alongside Boba Fett and
Captain Picard. Shuttlecraft and fighters zip in between dewdrops and
icicles. Looking around the room you
don’t see an Elf on a shelf keeping an eye out for naughty children, but a space
station complete with its own cascade of little ships. 
Many of these ornaments make noise and the ones that are
plugged into the light strands running around the tree spit out little lines of
dialogue lifted from movies, or wishing us a happy holiday. The result is
clamoring conversation of shouted messages from the Borg, Darth Vader, C-3P0,
R2-D2, and Worf every morning when we turn the lights on.
Hanging alongside the Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments, are
a large number of angel ornaments that Bo has been given over the years. Much
like my ornaments, the angels are a yearly ritual that help mark the seasons. It’s
a tradition that Bo and I have continued, and in addition to the ornaments that
we often receive from our families, we usually end up adding three or four
ornaments every year. We talk of getting a house, not because of the
investment, but because we might end up with more space, and therefore can add
a second tree.
Several years ago, I added to Bo’s collection by
cross-stitching an 8-bit version of the angel Castiel from the show
Supernatural. The show is a favorite of ours and the ornament was a neat way to
tie together the various aspects of our tree. It also served as the genesis for
our new tree topper, which we completed this year.
Christmas, like Fandom, is a holiday powered by nostalgia. Each
year we reinforce traditions often handed down from parents to children through
repetition, which creates a confusing sensation of past and present. I think it’s part of the reason why we often
see strife amongst in-laws during the holidays, because we are encountering
traditions that differ from our own, which disrupt our existing narrative of
what the holiday should be. Over the years, our tree has become our tradition,
a way to combine both of our childhoods, fandoms, and our love for each other.
Our friends have even gotten in on the tradition by keeping an eye out for fandom
related ornaments, launching us into the future.
I am not sure what kind of ornaments will be added to our
tree this year, (I have my eye on Captain Phantasma though!), but I do know
whatever it is it will be a wonderful addition to our expanding library of
ornaments adding to the joyful noise that is our Christmas.
Happy Holidays!
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