Reflection

As Christmas Eve draws near, our family friends in Weimar pull out their East-German tinsel from the attic. They gingerly unwrap long bundles of it, packed away the previous Christmas, and then, carefully, press the strands with a cool iron. As you might guess, this takes some time.

Once they have gone to the woods, cut their Tannenbaum, tied it to their car, driven it home, let it rest in a bucket of water for a day or two, and set it up on Christmas Eve (or perhaps the day before), they will hang that tinsel, strand by strand, on its branches. After Epiphany, they reverse the process, removing each strand of the tinsel from the tree and storing it in gatherings that are then wrapped in tissue paper.

Of course, they could buy a package of new tinsel, but not this kind. This is real tinsel, the type with lead content that left the market in the early 1970s. What can be bought now will not glitter. It will lack the weight necessary to hang. And it will have no memories.

We had the same kind of marvelous tinsel when I grew up. My mother put it on the tree. My job was to pick off the strands before my mother took the tree out the porch door. She did not save it either, since, back then, it was cheap and easier to buy each year. Watching the tree being dragged to the street with a few remaining strands, sparkling in the sun, made me sad.

After real tinsel disappeared due to its “dangers,” the new, lightweight tinsel came in. My mother called it “icicles” and she loved the fact that she could, more or less, toss it on the tree. The new tinsel was utterly disposable and fit in perfectly with the new aluminum trees as well as the newly marketed twinkle lights that replaced the thumb-sized bulbs in older light sets.

Use of tinsel on Christmas trees dates back to 1610 and began in the world’s great Christmas capital of Nuremberg, home of the gingerbread known as Lebkuchen. The word refers not to “tin” as you might think, but derives from an Old French word for “sparkle”: estincele.

Tinsel could be used to create starry skies in Nativity Scenes. It reflected the light of the real candles on Christmas Trees. And it was used beyond the Christmas season, strewn on sculptures and other items to enhance their beauty through reflected light.

Reflection as a word has many meanings. We think of mirrors and shiny metals that reflect light, which tinsel certainly does. The Latin roots re (back) and flectere (to bend) remind us of a second meaning for “reflection” that emerges in the mid-17th century, namely “to turn one’s thoughts back on something.”

Turning our thoughts (pausing, meditating) speaks strongly to us during Advent. In this season we are called to reflect both upon the monumental impact of Christ’s birth and on our own spiritual journey. Ordinarily the world at this time of year is fairly convulsing with sugar-fueled, frantically paced activities. In this unusual year of 2020, we are experiencing a different daily landscape. We have more challenges to reflect upon than we might wish.

A close friend pointed out something that sparked my own reflection. On the surface, the shutting down of normal activities in this strange year would seem to have granted people more time in their domestic lives. For some, this has been true. But others have felt the opposite effect. The lack of activities that ordinarily engage the minds and energies of children, for example, have made the rhythms of domestic life harder. The time a mother might have had for reflection and reading, while waiting in the car for practice or rehearsal to end, immediately disappeared. That dynamic when children came home tired from an activity, rejoicing in a sense of achievement or a hard lesson learned, has gone missing. The early bedtime such fatigue inspired vanished too.

Parents have had to fill all of the space and pick up all of the roles that school, church, band, choir, orchestra, ballet, sports teams, karate, and just plain circulation among other friends would have provided. You might say that reflection went into a holding pattern and still awaits the dawn of normalcy to send its balm.

So, whether your house is fully decorated or awaiting Christmas Eve to glitter, take a moment during the Twelve Days of Christmas to sit before something that sparkles and reflect. Probably you will not have 1960s lead tinsel on your tree, but there will be something that shines and brings a sense of joy or peace—a candle in a faceted glass holder, an heirloom set of ornaments, a bouquet of fresh flowers in a gold-flecked Christmas vase. For that matter, the sparkle in our children’s eyes could serve as the best tinsel of the season!