Nature and Christmas

The other day as the campus was transforming into a Christmas town, I stopped to consider how when decorating for this holiday, we use so many aspects of nature. Obviously, the Christmas tree is an iconic symbol of Christmas and has been for decades, but I have never considered how intertwined nature really is with the holiday. 

With this idea in mind, I began to pay more attention to it and found that we bring nature into almost all aspects of Christmas decorating. Every tree is utilized to hang lights, Christmas trees are cut down and brought into houses to be decorated, and wreaths are made from the leftover pine. While I do not necessarily know the origins of these traditions, I do know that there must be a reason everyone loves Christmas trees and decorations so much. 

I believe Christmas décor and the holiday season is so widely loved because it brings nature into our homes and we experience the benefits. As Abbey said, wilderness is "a necessity of the human spirit, and is vital to our lives...". When we bring these Christmas trees into our homes and have them around our cities, I think it provides us with a side of nature we might not see often. I know that personally, I feel calmer throughout the entire holiday season because the decorations and trees bring me so much peace. My family has always gotten a real Christmas tree, and actually used to cut one down ourselves when we lived Wyoming. For us, we have always appreciated the idea of bringing that nature into our homes, and are always sad to see it go when the holiday is over. I have suggested in the past that when the tree goes, we should replace it with another plant or form of nature to keep the spirits up in the house, and I think all houses should do this, too. 

                 

I think we can all learn something from our use of nature during the holiday season and that is that we need nature and we enjoy having nature present within our daily lives. We illuminate trees during the holidays to showcase the holiday spirit, but it makes us appreciate the nature around us so much more than before. My goal is to try and notice the same nature all year round, and incorporate something similar to a Christmas tree in my daily life to have that nature all year round.