I do not have a large collection of holiday and seasonal decorations. I have some decorations for Christmas, a few for Halloween, and that’s it.
What few I have, I like a lot. I believe part of continuing to like them is that they’re part of the decor only a short time each year, so each time I bring them out of storage it’s like meeting an old friend — sometimes one that I’d forgotten but am terribly pleased to see.
I brought a few Christmas decorations down to the apartment in Pittsburgh, and today I set them up. There’s the silver tinsel tree, which needs a bit better lighting to be seen to its best advantage here. There are some holiday dishes, perfect for hosting a small celebration (which I now feel more inclined to plan, now that I know it will mean getting to use these nifty dishes). There’s a wreath that I will have to take back to Butler, because the wreath hanger doesn’t work with the apartment door.
And there’s this ornament.
These are the Fezziwigs, characters from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Mr. Fezziwig was young Ebenezer Scrooge’s boss, a fun-loving and kind person and a foil to the bitter man Scrooge has become by the start of the story.
The ornament was a gift from my friend Paul. It’s a collectible glass ornament from Christopher Radko; these are made for one year or some short period and then not made again, so there’s a specialness to them. Paul wrote and directed a wonderful version of A Christmas Carol at the Butler Little Theatre some years back, I was producer, and we had just the best cast and crew. It was a fantastic show, the kind I would do again if I had the chance.
So the Fezziwigs bring all sorts of thoughts when I look at them: the fun (and challenges, but mostly fun) we had in putting on a terrific play; the past Christmas seasons when the Fezziwigs have been part of the seasonal decor; and the story of A Christmas Carol and its message of empathizing with and helping the people around us.
Plus they’re just fun to look at. Such a cheerful couple! They make me want to put on some music and dance my troubles away.