December 7, 2002
13 years of terrorizing Christmas trees ...
Way back in the 20th century, when I was just beginning to replace my records with CDs and the constant ringing of mobile phones was still a twinkle in some demented elf's eye, Lara Edge and I pondered Christmas.
We’d been married a matter of months. Neither of us is particularly religious, but we are spiritual. And we love rituals. We’d already managed to pull off a wedding ceremony that was decidedly non-sectarian but beautifully spiritual. We sprinkled lines from Wallace Stevens’ 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird into the ceremony, which borrowed from Whitman, the Grateful Dead and Roman Catholicism with equal abandon.
It was November 1989. The future loomed before us, shimmering with expectations. Lara had agreed to take a job in Albuquerque, NM, at The Tribune. Shortly after Christmas, she would load our shiny new Ford Bronco II with most of our worldly possessions (including a nervous cockatoo named Sydney) and drive off into the future. I planned to finish my master’s degree at UAB and follow a few months later.
This would be our last Christmas in Birmingham. We wanted to commemorate The Birmingham Years with a Christmas party that would be firmly rooted in the present without losing sight of the past and future. Thus, the Desecrate the Christmas Tree Party was born.
We decided to have a party that would celebrate our friendships. Each person would bring a homemade ornament and put it on the tree. In subsequent years, we’d decorate the tree with ornaments from previous parties, along with new contributions.
I don’t think we realized at the time what an incredible ritual we were creating. Over the next 13 years, our travels took us through Albuquerque, Denver, Austin and Knoxville. Along the way, we met a lot of tremendous people. And their contributions to the tree turned this party into a great opportunity to celebrate friendship, past, present and future.
Our tree has been honored with beautiful Blue Sky soda cans, cut into delicate ornaments that flood my memory with high desert New Mexico mornings. My recollections have been hooked with hand-tied trout flies that reel in memories of a Metallica-mad drummer who is now a big-time attorney. Everything from kitty litter to reindeer condoms to Elvis has appeared on our tree. Some ornaments are ridiculous. Some sublime. But each adds to this evergreen time capsule. This party has touched us, and we hope it’s touched you, too.
As we hit year 13, I catch myself looking back, much the way Wallace Stevens pondered those blackbirds. “When the blackbird flew out of sight,/It marked the edge/Of one of many circles.” You are one of those circles, my friend, and I’d love to hear your recollections of tree parties past. Post them below. Or if you’re too shy to type them, at least pause for a moment to smile and reflect.
Here's this year's party invite.
And here’s wishing you all peace in the New Year . . .
Posted by Bob Benz at December 7, 2002 9:37 AM
my first desecration party was a total blast. it involved a plane trip from harrisburg to dixie and a weekend full of revelry and catching up with old friends. this was a weekend when we spent what seemed like a month trekking back and forth to the airport in search of the montana contigent, their luggage, and any delta flight that would actually leave the knoxville airport. a good time was had and i felt like i was 20 years old again.
i did not hesitate to accept another invitation last year but things did not work out so well for me the second time around... upon arrival, i was held captive by a renegade group of "merry maids" and came down with the stomach flu just hours before the other guests arrived. i ended up sleeping in a large walk-in closet during the party and scaring the dickens out of some small tyke who was searching the house for a rumored ghost. fortunately for me, i had carpooled with the escoshafvoogds and they dragged my lifeless body back to virginia until i recovered enough to return to pennsyltucky.
i had hoped to attend the festivities this year but work obligations will not allow me to do so.
thanks, bob and lara, for hosting this gala event for the past 13 years! it's a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and meet new ones.
Posted by: jo at December 9, 2002 2:41 PM