The Christmas Tree

by Juad Masters

My Wellness Christmas Tree 2025

Christmas, and in particular the tree, has always held deep meaning for me. Not so much in a religious sense, but in the way it represents family, love, and cherished traditions. 

Some of my earliest memories are of decorating the Christmas tree with my parents, the three of us together, building the (fake) tree, putting on the lights and sparkly, colorful ornaments, and then taking pictures of our little family next to our fully decorated tree. It was such a simple tradition, so cozy and joyful. 

From the photos, I can see that these first memories are of a relatively small tree, as we were living temporarily abroad in a grad student apartment while my father was completing his PhD. 

Once we moved back into our forever home, we had a lovely, bigger tree, and as I grew up, I never lost the magical feeling of decorating it, choosing a bit of a different theme and color scheme each year, and losing ourselves in the joy of it. Eventually, it became a yearly activity I did only with my mom — not quite sure when or why my dad was demoted from the job, but he seemed perfectly fine with it! 

After graduating from college, I started working, and that year I gifted my parents a “real” tree. This was an incredibly special thing, almost unheard of, as I lived in Venezuela, where, as you can imagine, there are no pine trees in sight. But there was a place in my hometown that sold “REAL PINE TREES FROM CANADA,” and I was so excited to fill up our home with the smell of pine.

A few years later, when I moved abroad to live on my own in my mid-twenties, I bought myself a mini Christmas tree with tiny ornaments that I still have. I remember feeling so grown up and so excited about buying and decorating it — it’s only 18 inches tall, but it was magical! 

That same year, I came back home for Christmas to a very sick mother. 

We still decorated the tree together, but this time it was just me doing the actual decorating while she sat close by in an armchair, wrapped in a blanket to keep warm, watching it all with her loving eyes. 

We laughed and made the best of it, knowing full well it was our last time doing it together. 

From then on, I continued to decorate my tree, now without her yet always with her. 

The year I got married, she passed away. That Christmas I put up our tree in my parents' home in her honor. 

My wedding was in December, and I had pictures taken at my parents' home. And sure enough, right there in the background of my wedding pictures is the tree in all its glory… 

As newlyweds, the next year my husband and I decided to get our first tree together, and this time we bought a real one! It was 3 feet tall, perfect for our small apartment, and I remember thinking it was so pretty. My sweet mother-in-law has the cutest picture of me and her together posing next to it. 

In hindsight, what was extra special was that this first tree as a married couple was such a demonstration of the love we had, and still have, for one another. My husband did not grow up with the tradition of a Christmas tree, as I did not grow up celebrating Thanksgiving, yet we both embraced our different family and cultural traditions with such love and openness, and by merging our backgrounds, we created our “us” identity. 

As we grew as a family, our little tree also grew, each year a bit larger, both the tree and us, until we became a beautiful family of five with a big, big Christmas tree! 

Now the sweetness came from the lit-up faces of our children, their wonder as we dragged an actual tree into our apartment and stood it up high. Then covering it with sparkly lights and ornaments. Each child taking turns of being carried up in our arms to add a few ornaments here and there. 

And now, more new ornaments, this time handmade — tiny handprints, glued glitter, construction paper, googly eyes, popsicle sticks, and buttons… 

When we moved into our forever home, I was presented with the choice of how to evolve the Christmas tree tradition in my own home with my own children. And this is what I came up with. 

We have two trees. Both of which I love. 

The tree upstairs is the “family tree”. 

It's a fake tree, probably 4 or 5 feet tall. This one represents us as a family. It's everything we are. It's an explosion of colors, all sorts of different styles of lights, every ornament and Christmas decoration our children, now all teenagers, have made over the years. Some are falling apart, others have miraculously held on, but all get hung up year after year. The five of us put on Santa hats, play Christmas music, and decorate it together. 

It's chaotic, loud, messy, crazy, and so much fun. 

Once we are done, and we go through the yearly fight of whose turn it is to put the star at the top, we turn off the lights, count down to 10, and turn the Christmas tree on. Instant cheer. Every year.

The other tree, downstairs, is "mommy's tree", and as selfish as that "could" sound, it has never felt like that to any of us. 

We have created our own tradition of going to cut down our tree in the nearby Christmas tree farm every Friday after Thanksgiving. We take a hayride to the top of a hill covered in trees, take a few saws, and go tree hunting until we find the perfect one. We then go through a comical dynamic of too-many-cooks-in-the-kitchen trying to tie the tree to the top of our car, which, despite having now a bit over a decade of experience, we have yet to nail down the efficiency of the process, and usually drive back home praying the tree doesn't fly off the roof! 

Once it's inside and set up in our family room downstairs, I take the entire week that follows to decorate it slowly, intentionally, lovingly by myself. 

There is something sacred about it for me. It is so deeply enjoyable. 

I take my time, making each bow one by one just as she taught me, and adding the ornaments with balance and care. Every year, adding a little something new, just as she did. 

I light a fire in the chimney while the children are at school and my husband is at work. 

I do it in the stillness of the house. 

Just me. 

The tree. 

And her, in my heart. 

I look forward to it every year, and it fills me up to the brim with joy. 

I can see now how the tree's ebbs and flows match with our life's ebbs and flows. I had never thought of it until now, as I am writing this and reflecting on the importance of the tree in my life. 

I recently read a beautiful book called A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, in which the author cleverly represents the different stages of the main character's life through the cars he's owned. I feel the Christmas trees have a similar representation in my life, too. How special?! The thought of it warms my heart. 

Back to my tree decorating in the present. 

Once I'm done with the tree, I love seeing my family's faces light up as they come back from school and work. That happened today, and I loved every second of it. 

Reflecting on how the tree seems to represent our life's evolution, this year I was inspired by a tree I saw on a recent trip with my husband — one that had been tied with little pieces of paper bearing beautiful words. 

I LOVED this idea and decided to make this year's tree theme "Wellness". 

Over the last decade or so, I've developed a deep interest and passion for the science of well-being, recently graduating with a degree in this area of study. And so this tree — yet again — represents a new stage of my life. 

With the knowledge I've gathered, I now understand at a deeper level what decorating the tree truly means. It's a connection to love, to family, to my past and my roots. It allows me to be present, to savor beauty and express creativity. I enter Flow — that sweet spot where focus and joy meet, making me happily lost in what I'm doing. I see it as a gift to my family and anyone who enters my home at this time of the year. 

This year, I added 17 beautiful notes with ribbons to my tree, each holding a well-being word that captures things that are important to me. 

My heart was full today as my family read the little notes on the tree: peace, joy, kindness, empathy, resilience, love... 

The possibilities for this new "wellness" theme are endless! Maybe you too can feel inspired to add your own little notes to your tree. Perhaps each member can write a note or more listing something they're grateful for or what they love about each other. Maybe you can list the character strengths you each have, or those you share as a family unit, or your wishes for the new year... I get excited just thinking of all the ways this tradition can grow. 

For now, I'm happily going to head off to bed, leaving my new wellness tree twinkling in the dark… with my heart full, knowing that my mom and I absolutely rocked it this year.

Happy Holidays to all,

Juad