The Legos on My Tree

As our kids get older, we amp up our Christmas game. The holiday once involved artificial trees or tiny rosemary bushes. Last year we sprang for a live tree from Home Depot.

This year? We hit a traditional Christmas tree lot, complete with a bonfire and candy canes for the little guys.

We brought the tree home one Saturday night, everyone giddy and full of holiday cheer. We established the tree in a place of honor in our living room, then bid it goodnight, leaving decorating for the morning.

In years past, I’ve been able to exert my decorating will over the tree. No one else had a strong opinion on whether we mixed colors or included commercially branded ornaments. The kids might hang a few baubles, and then I would rearrange them after bedtime.

Ah, the end of an era.

Our five-year-old woke us early on Sunday morning to inform us he had made ornaments out of his Legos. I went into the living room to find a Lego stable and a tiny Lego Christmas tree.

When we got out the rest of the decorations later that afternoon, my son ran upstairs and returned with hand-drawn characters from the movie Cars, connected by strings. “I’ve been saving these decorations!” he exclaimed.

The next day more Lego ornaments were made (my husband and I were invited to join the process this time), and eventually a scrawled birthday card for Jesus appeared on the tree.

Apparently I am not the only one with ideas about appropriate Christmas decor.

So here’s our tree, in all it’s glory. It’s covered in plain colored balls from Target, Austrian straw ornaments, craft projects, Lego creations, and art from the heart of a five-year-old boy.

This definitely isn’t how I pictured our tree this year. It’s infinitely more amazing — and more “real” — than I could ever have imagined.