Christmas Traditions

Mrs4444 from Half-Past Kissin' Time asked about holiday traditions. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to post. I have my usually Ma'am-Ma Tinsel and Daddy's Picture story. But this year I just felt that there was something I was missing.

I found it last night when we went to get our tree.

Our first Christmas here, 2006, we were sent by a friend quite a distance for a tree. He said it was a special place with good people and that was where we were to go. We drove 30 minutes, passing other tree lots, to a small family nursery. There was no one there when we got there. But there was this sign:

It says, "If you need a Christmas tree, just help yourself. Pay if you'd like. Put the money in the jar outside the front door. Thanks, Bob Williams"

Here's the jar with some money in it.

Needless to say, having come from a large city, this overwhelming trust was just what we'd moved for.

But the best part was when we met Bob and his son Corey. Corey owns a barbershop but helped with the trees every Christmas. Anyway, inside of Bob's Nursery there is this wall. This very special wall. What made this wall so incredible is that every family that came to get their tree had their children measured there and the child them self wrote their name and dated it.

They'd been doing it since 1977. This was their third wall (paneling) and the first two walls were kept as history. There were people who brought their children there because they were measure there themselves as children.

Here's Bob measuring our daughter in 2006.

We bought our 2006 and 2007 Christmas trees there. He remembered us the second year we came. In 2008 Bear arrived and it was pouring rain and we had to use a fake tree for the first time in our marriage. We were all saddened to have not had one of Bob's trees.

Last night we headed out for our tree at Bob's Nursery. There was a sign with a number to call if we needed help with a tree. I got a hold of Corey who was just closing his barbershop and was heading over. The kids got all excited about being measured on the wall and eagerly looked for where they had been measured before so they could be marked down this year. I asked Corey where Bob was.

Corey just looked at me and shook his head. His Dad had passed away November 30th of this year. I blinked back tears.

We had picked out our tree before we called him and Corey simply loaded it into the back of the van. He had said earlier that his brother may be taking over the nursery, but even if his brother didn't and the nursery closed, that HE would be selling Christmas Trees somewhere. Bear tried to pay him, but he simply said, "Merry Christmas" and sent us on our way.

I cried silently most of the way home. The kids said that they had some tears of their own. And I believe Bear's eyes were a bit moist as well. It's hard to believe how someone you hardly know can touch your heart so deeply, and how loosing them can affect us so much.

So this year I share two traditions, one 32-year old tradition that our family has been part of for just a few short years, and new tradition we start this year. It's a mason jar under the tree with a single word written on the top of the jar, Bob.


Merry Christmas. And may you touch someone's heart this year the way Bob touched ours.

~*~*~Krystal~*~*~