Aurora's Christmas Tree

For Americans, Christmas is perhaps the biggest holiday of the year. Although it has its roots in religion, it’s become widely celebrated by most people, despite whether or not they’re religious. For me personally, Christmas has always been about family and the traditions we have to celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.

At the center of our Christmas traditions, is the decorating of the tree. Long before I was born, my parents started collecting ornaments, each unique and with their own sentimental value. Every Christmas since we were old enough to help, my younger brother and I have been designated as my mom’s little assistants in decorating the tree.

And every year we alternate between whose turn it is to have their paper angel placed on the very top, the most scared place on the entire Christmas tree. As children we used to bicker between whose turn it was, and who went the year before.  Amazingly enough, the objects being discussed are simple paper angles we made in preschool that have a photograph of our faces glue to the front, that my mother has kept, protected, and cherished, for the past twenty-something years; She’s a good mom.

Since I am away from my family for the holidays, I wanted to find a way to share this tradition with my Aurora class. I took inspiration from Miss. Dinora, the Rainbow class’s sensei, and made a giant paper tree on the wall of my classroom. In an attempt to fuse together Christmas and Japanese culture, I used origami paper for the kids to decorate the ornaments with. I wanted the Christmas tree to represent both my culture and theirs, as the exchange we are sharing is present everyday in the classroom. 

And just like the ornaments on my family's tree, each child's ornament was unique and special.