"What does a southern Christmas tree look like?"
The thought came from
A day when edie learned the words to "oh Christmas tree
Oh Christmas tree
How verdant are your branches"
And I realised
Of course the Christmas tree came to be so sacred in the northern winter around this time
Of year! It was the only tree that looked full of
Life still
A sign of hope and lifefulness.
We don't have the same experience in the south. It is wet
And warm
And the garden grows greedily!
Our pear tree has shot up out of nowhere and a sunflower has suddenly
Sprouted on the fence line.
More broadly then
What does Christmas on the southern ocean look like?
Yesterday Edie and I were driving in Wimbledon Heights and a reindeer leapt into the titree
- Remnant swamp vegetation so very sacred and symbolic of this area -
The reindeer glowed with bright white spots and wore a fawn coloured coat.
Her eyes darted dark brown
long slender legs almost carried her
Unbeknownst to her following head
too occupied with eyes on us.
It occurs to me
Even richer for us is the play between a southern Christmas and its northern influences.
Something a little less sensical,
Nonsensical and fantastical
when it doesn't make sense to worship a pine tree -
A weed -
it makes it easier to cut one down for decorating
And what a sight,
A special event,
to have a reindeer escape
From Santa's palace and dart around Phillip island accounting for all the new children to bring gifts!
So the story goes
That the reindeer were released from a
Local farm when schoolies tried to take a short cut through the farm and left the gate open.
They caught all but two
One was hit by a car and before the owers could collect it
A driver by had spotted its tasty potential and collected it up
The last is still "loose"
Apparently there are deer on the island
They are hog deer
And they travel over here from the mornigton peninsula
From the mainland
by swimming across western ports western channel
Imagine the tidal negotiation
The timing
And the knowing required to wander
into watery terrain
Just to see where one may "land"
Its a good distance across
and a deep strongly ripping current between -
Now isn't that fantastic!
Any thoughts this month
Images
Stories
Toward this space between a southern ocean and a northern traditional Christmas are
very
Welcome!
Sarah
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