Hunting for the Little Jingler

“...freshly cut Christmas trees smelling of stars and snow and pine resin - inhale deeply and fill your soul with wintry night...” -John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

Every year since December 2015, I have showcased Hallmark ornaments on my Christmas tree. It was an impulsive decision. It was a Tuesday and on my way out the door, in my midwestern dialect, I halted suddenly and thought, “Ope, I should do a Christmas countdown with my ornaments.” I snapped a picture of Wall-E tangled in a string of colorful lights and captioned it “25 days of Christmas. Brought to you by a Mississippi tree full of love and cute stuffs.”

Oh, look, here he is in the original photo:

So many people have let me know how much they look forward to the ornament posts and countdown. So, now I put a lot more thought into the ornament selection, the order, and the photo composition.

In July every year, Hallmark releases their new ornaments, and I begin to carefully select from my collection that has been amassed over my lifetime and from new ones I pick up each year. I lovingly and mindfully find the perfect spot to hang them on the tree before snapping their photos. Then comes the writing bit with some inspiring thoughts and memorable quotes to go along with each ornament. And then, each day, I send them out into social media land to do what they were created to do—spread little lights. A new tradition was born out of an old one.

My grandmothers established a tradition when my brother and I were very young. Each year they would gift us Hallmark Keepsake ornaments. For years, my Grammy got me the porcelain kitty series, and my Gramma got us the Windows of the World.

And, yeah, I’ll admit, I didn’t really appreciate them as being great gifts when I was a kid. They weren’t like getting the new Super Mario Brothers game, you know? But now, I appreciate them so, so much. My Christmas tree is completely infused with the memories and spirits of my childhood.

But, for the last six years, one ornament has eluded me—The Little Jingler. This little ornament is likely the first ornament my Gramma ever gifted me on my very first Christmas almost four decades ago.

She is a cute, mischievous raccoon. She has been caught stealing a bell and is dangling down, summoning the courage to drop and escape with her treasure. She’s frozen at this moment with a little smile on her face.

Last year, in particular, I hunted ferociously in every storage box that I could find. Still no Little Jingler. I lamented to my mom, “Still can’t find the Little Jingler.”

This year will be my seventh year of sharing my ornaments and thoughts each day until Christmas. And just yesterday, I was up in the storage area of my pole barn, once again sifting through old boxes for my favorite little raccoon ornament. While I was up there, I was thinking about my ornament traditions and also got curious about… well… Christmas trees.

Each state in the U.S. grows Christmas trees, even Hawaii.

And before the tree has made its way to your living room, it has done so much work. It grew up in the wind and rain, it stored carbon dioxide and breathed out fresh oxygen for us. Christmas tree roots, whether they are pine or fir, stabilize our soil and provide refuge for all sorts of wildlife. The pines in my yard are home to lots of songbirds, spiders, and praying mantises. Sometimes blackbirds and doves perch high at the peak, blending right in with the branches and needles. They are so camouflaged that I don't even see them until they take flight.

While I was contemplating Christmas trees and searching for the Little Jingler, I kept thinking, “Why, oh why do we bring whole trees inside our homes? That’s absurd.”

And then, the hypocrisy hit me. I have dozens of house plants because I love nature being inside my home. I have fig trees, and fiddle leaf fig trees, and giant monstera plants. So, what’s different about a pine tree?

Not a thing.

At the end of the season, we can’t keep our Christmas trees in pots, though. So, when Christmas is over, you can recycle your tree, and it can be turned into mulch, giving it a new shape and form where its life can continue in a new way.

So, there I was in the dusty boxes of this dusty barn, allergies causing my nose to run. Searching. Still searching. A fat barn cat had made his way up the ladder to join me and realized that he was stuck on the top rung.

I said to him, “Well, I guess we just live up here now,” as I hung my head and packed up the last box still without the Little Jingler.

I guess I’ll try again next year.

But, since the cat was blocking my way on the ladder, I shrugged and decided to go through this one tub of ornaments a second time. I didn’t do a very thorough search of it the first time through.

See, each of these tubs or ornaments is packed like a game of Tetris, each fitting just so. In my desire to keep everything all tidy so the lids could easily close, I knew I wasn’t looking through everything.

Maybe the Little Jingler is in the middle, like the best part of a doughnut. So, I thrust my hands down into the boxes and jostled them all up. It was a mess.

I started gently sifting through like a kid combing through the sand for a seashell.

And there she was.

Her box was face down, right in the middle of the tub, surrounded by her ornament friends. The joy I felt when I found her box tucked away was immense.

I yelled out to no one except the fat cat on the ladder that "I found her, I found her. I'm so happy I found her!”

This year, if you are into Christmas trees, I encourage you to think about all the ways that it has changed throughout your life. And all of the ways that it has stayed the same.

If Christmas trees aren’t your thing, what winter traditions are still around? How have the evolved and changed? Or what new ones do you have?

If you have a real tree, take some time to reflect on the life of your tree before it travelled to your home, and how its life will continue in the circle of it all after the ornaments and lights are packed away for the year.

In connection,

Ellie