My 3-year-old niece took a look at our Christmas tree this year and declared that it was "just like" the one in the grocery store. It turns out that the angel on top of the tree was similar to the one she saw at the supermarket.

After she left that day, I thought about that treetop angel. Although her lights stopped working several years ago, she continues to hold the honored position. It's where she belongs. As long as her wings hold up and she's all in one piece, that's where she'll be each Christmas.

This reminds me of a story that began as a contribution to our family Christmas Eve service a couple years ago. It has changed a bit since then, but it's still about holiday traditions and the special memories brought to life by this magical time of year.

Season's greetings to you all.



Christmas was Samantha Johnson's favorite time of year. She especially loved decorating the tree, where sparkling new ornaments and intricate old ones mingled with those made by Samantha and her older brother, Tim. All were arranged in haphazard order, different each year, but somehow still the same.

Each Christmas brought more additions to the collection. Eventually it was decided that some of the older, more fragile ones should be set aside, both to make more room and to protect them from further wear. So, each year, as the decorations were being taken down, a family vote was held to see which ones would be retired or, if they were beyond repair, discarded.

The year Samantha was 12, she was outvoted. The porcelain angel tree topper ---- the one that had graced Grandmother Johnson's tree when she was a little girl ---- was to take its place in the "retired" box. It had dulled over the years, with many of the sequins missing from the cloth wings and one of the fingers missing from the dainty outstretched left hand. But to Samantha, it was the most special of all.

Grandmother Johnson died when Samantha was 7. Just after that, Samantha found the photo of Grandmother as a child, standing by a Christmas tree holding that very same angel. The following Christmas, Samantha asked her mother to take a picture of her and the angel in front of their tree. When the photo was developed, everyone remarked how much Samantha looked like her grandmother.

After the angel was retired, Samantha asked her mother if she could put it in a special place. Soon the angel was in Samantha's room, suspended from the ceiling by a white ribbon. Each morning the sun glinted on the angel's golden hair and reflected off the remaining sequins on her wings. To Samantha, the angel looked even happier and more beautiful than when she was on top of their tree.

When the family was about to decorate their tree that following Christmas, she gently took the angel from its new home, blew a bit of dust away and solemnly brought it down to the living room. Even if it wasn't going to be part of the tree, she felt the angel should be present to see the new tree topper her father had bought: a gleaming brass star.

Tim's friend John was just about to go home. As he grabbed his coat from a peg on the entryway wall, he didn't see Samantha coming down the stairs. Whoosh went his coat. It hit the angel from her hands and sent it sailing through the air. Although they both scrambled to catch it, neither one could get there in time. It landed on the wood floor of the living room, just in front of the tree, and cracked into three large pieces and a half-dozen smaller ones.

Samantha's tears were immediate and soon developed into sobs. Her mother thought they could fix it. Her father headed for the broom closet. Samantha ignored their warnings not to touch it and brought the three large pieces back upstairs. She wouldn't come out of her room the rest of the evening.

The family decided to put off decorating the tree until Samantha could join them.

The next day was Sunday. After church her mother coaxed Samantha into going shopping. One stop they made was to a craft store. Samantha's mother guided her along an aisle devoted to Christmas things. They paused halfway down and Samantha's eyes lit up when they landed on a picture frame ornament kit. The wooden frame had two sides, to accommodate two pictures, and came with a golden ribbon to hang it from the tree.

Samantha burst into the house less than a half-hour later and went immediately to her art supplies. She worked quickly but diligently as paint, glitter and glue found their way onto one side of the frame, then the other. At last, when both sides were dry, she tied the ribbon and inserted the two photos. Carefully she brought it downstairs, where her family was waiting. It was the first ornament on the tree that year, and Samantha's first choice every year, even when she had her own tree as an adult.

Two different girls, sitting in front of two different Christmas trees--holding the same angel. A new tradition to replace the old. A new way to remember the past.

On the Bright Side appears every other Thursday in The Post-Star. Kay Hafner can be reached via e-mail at [email protected] or through her Web site at kayhafner.homepage.com.