A Star Restored by Sue Wright

"Whatcha doing, mom?" Lindy had watched her mother hunched over her latest "BETTER HOMES AND GARDEN" for an hour, Mrs. Barrows' nose almost touching the illustrations she stared into wistfully.

"Just trying to revive my Christmas spirit, Lindy. These decorators say no Barbie pink trees this year and nothing metallic. Bottom line? We're supposed to be green."

"Green as the Grinch who stole Christmas?"

"No! Green like a Christmas tree covered in what appears to be vintage ornaments in these pictures. The ghosts of past Christmases back on the tree."

"Like those scary guys in Dickens' Christmas Carol?"

"Kinda," answered Mrs. Barrows thoughtfully, "But without the moaning and groaning. Probably more like the dusty old decorations we inherited from your great-great-grandmother. They're in the basement someplace."

"I know where they are, Mom! Dad and I ran into that box the other day looking for our outside lights and the blow-up manger and Santa we bought on sale last year."

"Show me!" Mrs. Barrows exclaimed, longing to regain her Christmas spirit as soon as possible. Her family was already day two into Advent. In a minute, she and Lindy were downstairs with great-great-grandma's cache of Christmas "haunts" in their hands.

"Wow," cried Lindy. "Only glass. No plastic. Everything is so breakable."

"For sure, irreplaceable, Lindy. Look at this! The tree topper is the face of Baby Jesus."

"Cool! And here are Mary and Joseph and an angel, the wise men, two shepherds, two lambs, a couple of camels, and a donkey. Great-great-grandma's tree must have been one bushy crèche."

"Cute," chuckled Mrs. Barrows. "Anything else in the box?"

"There's this star, but it's in three pieces. I wonder if it was already broken when Great-Grandma put it away with the others. I bet she didn't have the heart to throw it out."

"Well, I never knew my great-great-grandmother, Lindy, but I understand she was a very sweet woman, and she loved music."

"Must be true! The last three ornaments are a harp, a trumpet, and a tiny bell that actually jingles."

"So what are we going to do with these things?" asked Mrs. Barrows. "They'll definitely be lost in the bushy branches of our big old ten-foot tree."

"Hey, Mom, what about having three little trees for a change instead of one big tree? A yesterday tree, one for today, and a tree all about tomorrow."

"Fabulous idea, Lindy."

"I know Dad won't mind giving up a big tree for three little ones. It's so much work getting the big one centered exactly how you want it."

Mrs. Barrows rolled her eyes but smiled as Lindy went on.

"We can decorate the yesterday tree with all of great-great-grandma's ornaments, the today tree with some of our Hallmark collection including Dad's Mahomes, one of your zillion cardinals  . . ."

"And the tomorrow tree?" interrupted Mrs. Barrows, anxious to hear her daughter out.

Lindy took a moment to reflect before she spoke. "What if I try gluing great-great-grandma's star back together, and we hang it on the tomorrow tree—just it, nothing else?"

"Oh, Lindy," sighed Mrs. Barrows, holding back a tear, "What a perfect way to symbolize how the Star of Bethlehem will be fixed again on our hopes and faith in tomorrow."

Lindy threw her right palm in the air. "Give me five, Ebenezer Scrooge!"

Palms met. Lindy's mother grinned at her daughter, her Christmas spirit no longer lost in the pages of a magazine. "God bless us, everyone!" she shouted in her best stage voice. "I will live in the past, the present, and the future!"*

*Re-purposed from The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.