Caroline James - Mom’s Christmas Tree

(hummmmm) There’s a little corner by the window Where the tree has always

stood

Same old ornaments, same wooden star Same lights that never quite worked

like they should

Mom would bring the boxes from the attic And we’d all pretend

to help

Then she’d laugh and tell us,

“Move aside now” Because nobody did it

quite as well

There’s the ornament from second grade

And the one somebody made

There’s a little paper angel

That somehow never got replaced

There’s a picture hanging from a branch Of two people long ago

And every year she finds a place for it Right where everybody

knows

It’s Mom’s Christmas tree

And it looks the same to me

A little crooked, a little worn But exactly where it’s supposed to

be

Every light has got a memory

Every branch has something to say

And somehow all the Christmases Are still hanging there today

I remember being younger

Thinking decorations were the thing

Never understanding why she’d stop And smile at everything

Now I catch myself doing it

When nobody’s looking on

Standing underneath those little lights And remembering who’s gone

Maybe someday I’ll be older And somebody else will say “That’s the

ornament she always hung That way,

on Christmas Day”

And I’ll understand what Mom understood Long before I knew

That keeping Christmas

isn’t keeping time It’s keeping pieces

of the people who loved you

It’s Mom’s Christmas tree

And now I finally see

It was never just the lights and stars Or how beautiful it

could be

It was every hand that helped decorate it Every Christmas gathered near

Every little piece of yesterday That somehow made it here

So leave that little wooden star up Leave those old lights shining

too

Because every year when Christmas comes

A little bit of Mom

comes through