The true spirit of Christmas joy and love..

Christmas celebrations for kids means holidays, lots of sweets, new clothes, decorations, festivity, enjoyment and fun all around! Kids enjoy decorating the Christmas tree with all sorts of trinkets and baubles...However, this Christmas the tree I saw is one that wins prizes hands down and shall remain etched in my heart forever...

Can you imagine a ten year old European girl decorating a Christmas tree? I am sure everyone would agree that such a tree would indeed be a sight to behold... However, the one that tugged at my heartstrings was a rather unique and imaginative one..

This little kid of European descent had stuffed a dried up tree branch in an old discarded plastic mineral water bottle. She had filled the bottle with pebbles to hold the branch upright. Now, the branch too had been selected with great care... The smaller twigs of this particular branch were spread out and looked much like a real tree.. The kid had then drawn small shapes in her blue and red lined school notebook, crudely cut it out with her fingers (for want of a scissor) and colored it with crayons. The entire tree was thus decorated with imaginative decorations. There were also used and shiny sweet wrappers twisted into shapes and hung on the tree.. An old dirty tiny sock had found a place on the tree too.. But the place of price was taken up by a pretty little fairy, again hand crafted by the little girl...

This little tree was unique like the little girl because I met her in prison where we had gone for a visit as part of our church activities. She had been living there all her life along with her mother. Yet, her sense of enjoyment,. her spirit of joy and life put us all to shame. This little girl not only ran to get her 'tree' but also got a treasured packet of cream biscuits which she then broke into half and offered to all..

Oh what a lesson this little girl taught us....