When we arrived home, I climbed into the attic and handed down the box of decorations. We had multicoloured lights on our tree and lots of tinsel. Across the street, my best friends had all blue lights, and I felt sorry for them, stuck with a monochrome Christmas. They fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move. By now it was late afternoon and dark.
Men deck it with silver and gold.
They never went to church, and at times like this it showed. Christian pride modified by Christian compassion. For the customs of the peoples are false. It wasn't just the tree that was absent, the richly nuanced ritual was abolished. Or so I felt.