I’m a big fan of using what I have, don’t get me wrong, I’ll buy if I really want something, but Christmas is a wonderful time to incorporate old things, things that may not exactly “go” with my current style, or things that in another life were garish (and probably still are), but who really cares?? It’s Christmas! And so it was with Mr B’s star tree topper. It cost a whopping 53¢ in its day, in the 1970’s. He remembers it as being the first ornament he picked out on his own and purchased. That first year of dating bliss, our first Christmas together was spent visiting one another’s homes and honestly the only stars I saw that year were the ones he put in my eyes. I never noticed the 53¢ tree topper.

I DID notice it the second Christmas, the year we moved in together and began blending our things (read, I packed up most of his hideous decor as soon as my boxes were unpacked. (I had empty boxes…..I mean, come on…..couldn’t waste those, right???)  I set about the task of making his home, our home. Christmas came and we began decorating the house. Out came our boxes of Christmas ornaments. The lights went on the tree and we had fun hanging all our different ornies, laughing at some of our crazy old ones. And then it was time for the topper and he pulled that star out of its shabby package, the original package I might add, with the price clearly marked.  My beloved Christmas angel, the one that belonged to my Grams and featured in a  previous post, was in danger once again of being replaced by something modern.  CHEEZITS! No way. Nuh uh, not ever again. So we compromised. He still had children who lived with him ( and eventually became mine as well) and it was important to continue their traditions in a time of change. So I put my angel on a small tree decorated with my family memories and we proudly installed Mr B’s star (OK, one of us was proud, the other not so much, I’ll leave it up to you to decide who was, and who wasn’t in the proud corner).  I disliked that star immensely. I decided immediately it was tacky. But I was in a new relationship and had already packed up lots of his things so I didn’t rock the Christmas boat.  I swore an oath that the next Christmas my angel was goin up on the big tree. Yep. No doubt.

Well, the next year and the year after that and maybe even the following year that stupid star graced the top of our main tree. Along with colored lights. ugh. Because our daughter loved them.  Yes, she officially became my daughter too, after a holiday wedding, and I also gained a second son. WOOT! But I adored white lights. So we compromised again. And went with colored lights. (Clearly I hadn’t mastered the art of the compromise thing.) It was OK though. More than OK, we were a family. It was Christmas. The tree looked beautiful, albeit with colored lights and that 53¢ star. We kept the colored lights until the daughter graduated high school and went off to college. Numbers 1 and 2 sons were out on their own. I finally got my tree with white lights and when it came time to put the topper on the first year as empty nesters, Mr B stood quietly beside our glorious tree with the star in his hand. And something happened. I suddenly didn’t hate that star. I actually liked it….. in all its tacky glory. So up on the top it went. And that star remained as the topper for all the years our “big” tree stood in the family room. My angel? She adorned a smaller tree in the living room, the first room you see when you enter our home. All  was well in the Brown home. Harmony and Peace.

Harmony and Peace still reign in our home. The angel tops the main tree in our tiny living room. The family room is now home to a small tree, purchased to showcase the Hallmark ornaments I’ve collected for years. There are none on the tree. Because… well……that’s a story for another time. But the 53¢ star? It’s on that little tree, loud and proud. It doesn’t really fit. It sits way up on top and that tip is too thick to cut. So just under it is the ribbon from my wedding bouquet to hide the bare spot. I love that star. It isn’t Christmas without it. It’s a glorious star. 53¢ well spent if you ask me. No more compromise. I’m firmly in the proud corner with Mr B.

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