One More Sweet Tradition to Share

This morning, I read one of my favorite seasonal stories, Night Tree. This beautiful and quiet book by Eve Bunting is about a family who makes an annual pilgrimage out into the woods to decorate a special tree for the birds and other woodland creatures.

It reminds me of a tradition we had for several years when my son was younger - after our Christmas tree was taken down after the New Year, we would take off the decorations and then drag it outside. Propped up in our yard, we would decorate it anew - this time with popcorn chains, seeded pinecones, and other treats. Looking out our window, the tree gave us another couple weeks of pleasure as we saw all of the birds and squirrels come to visit.

The children and I had a few leftovers from the Birdie Bake Sale, and we made a few more seeded pine cones. We also had some stale-ish cereal and pumpkin seeds from a long-ago snack, as well as bird seed. We packed everything up, along with a big thermos of hot chocolate (just like in the book). Off we went, to the woods, to find a perfect tree for us.