O Tannenbaum, o tannenbaum

We put up our tree yesterday. We like to wait until after Johan's birthday, because a decorated tree with presents under it isn't the best thing to have in your living room when you're having a birthday party for a 7-year-old. Also, the tradition in Norway is to put up your tree late - the 23rd is the traditional day (that day even has its own name in Norway - Little Christmas Eve) - and then leave it up until January 13th. So people think we're pretty strange for putting our tree up so early. Not to mention the fact that we have presents sitting under the tree. No one can understand why the kids don't just rip into the gifts and start opening them. Which says a lot about Norwegian kids....

While we were decorating our tree yesterday, Anders made a comment about how our tree always looks "kind of strange" when we get the decorations up. Norwegians don't use many decorations on their trees either. Gaute's parents are considering having nothing but lights on their tree this year, for example. Our tree, on the other hand, is covered with all kinds of different decorations which I have been collecting since I was a little girl. My mom has given me a decoration every year, and has done the same thing for the kids (which is good, since there aren't many good tree decorations in Norway). And, of course, the kids have made many decorations at school through the years which also go up on the tree. But, as we told Anders yesterday, that's the way our tree is. His childhood memories of Christmas will include the tree covered with all kinds of decorations, each one bringing back a special memory.

And we all agreed that the tree looked quite nice....