Christmas Magic

I like to think we all still have that little thing in Christmas that is magic to us. Ya know, that one little item/tradition/habit that for even just a millisecond makes us forget the adult we have become and remember the kid we once were. In the movie, "The Polar Express" it is the little jingle bell from the harness of Santa's reindeer ..... for me it is and always has been the snow globe.

This came to mind this past Saturday as I began pulling out the Christmas decor, putting up my various Santas and snowmen and evergreen garlands around the house. The tree will be done later and will take much longer, getting its own day or days (as you all know from previous blogs on it! We will see how this year goes!) but what I really am always anxious to get to are my collection of snow globes. I began my collection after I got married, but my fascination with them started long before when I was just a girl. I cannot pin point when it began or even a particular globe. They were always just mesmerizing to me. I could sit and gaze into them, watching the snow fall silently down and imagine an entire little world encompassed inside, perhaps with its own set of little people. I would create entire stories in my head of what happened inside the snow globe.

Now as an adult I still find the same magic, carefully removing each from their box and examining them anew. Each is like a cherished friend to me and, indeed, many are from friends and family. One of my favorites, a huge silver-based one, holds three beautiful Christmas trees, unadorned except for white snow on their branches and the sparkling snow that falls in the globe. It plays "Oh Christmas Tree" as all three trees silently rotate inside the globe and was given to me by my dear friend, Mel. The first one Clay gave me is another cherished favorite and one that inspires many childhood fantasies within my head, for it holds a small cottage inside, complete with frosted windows that actually light up from a switch on the bottom. It also has a rock strewn stream, deer, and pine trees and plays "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas." And, of course, I have the whimsical ones, with Rudolph or a bear snowman or little ones, with a Christmas Mickey Mouse, and even an older one that had been in my Grandma B's possession. The water is murky, but the Santa and sleigh full of toys is no less dear. My brother and Chrissy even managed one year to find a Breyer horse Christmas snow globe, combining one love with another since when I was younger I collected Breyers (I still have all of them packed away and let me tell you that is a LARGE collection).

I have three or four from Eddie Bauer which makes lovely wood-based globes with cute log cabins inside. Last winter we woke in the dead of night to a crash in the kitchen to discover that a shelf had come loose from the wall .... on it had been my favorite Eddie Bauer snow globe, a simple log cabin which I had left out long after Christmas as it was truly more of a winter scene as opposed to a Christmas one. I recall picking up the tiny shards of glass and placing them in the trash with tears streaming down my face. I felt ridiculous for crying over a snow globe but somehow I just could not stop. I was sad because Clay had given it to me, but it was more than that. For me when that snow globe broke it was like losing a tiny piece of that Christmas magic or that childhood wonder, so I guess it hurt just that little bit more.

Of course, every year brings new snow globes to the collection and I eagerly await to see what "Santa" will bring me this year. I also am training a new recruit in the art of loving snow globes and Isabelle is an avid disciple. She begs me to play their music and all must be kept well out of reach of her three year old hands as they are just way too tempting. Of course, I completely understand. After all, I think they are magic too!