When you see our Christmas tree, one of the first things you might notice is our crooked star. I love our little star, but it will not sit straight on a tree. Years ago, I used to try to straighten it, but after a few days of the dog barreling into the tree or the cats using the tree as their own personal playground, the star would be crooked again.
This year, I embraced our crooked star. I didn’t try to fix it or make it look like all the other stars and I don’t apologize for it when people mention it’s a little off-center.
I’m ok with it. It’s like me, like all of us … imperfect, unique, messy and perhaps a little off-center. It reminds me to let go and let things be what they will be, and let people be who they are.
When we are willing to share ourselves as we are instead of who we think people expect us to be, and before we’ve got everything straightened out, we give others a chance to see us for who we really are, to fall in love with us, and perhaps to share their own crooked stars.
I think we have that same star, and ours is crooked too! When we bought it and tried to put it on our tree, it immediately tilted to the side. We just laughed! Like you, it reminds us of our life as a family-never perfect but always lively. Now, we have a pallet tree that we made and we jam it on the top of the tree. It’s still a bit crooked and it looks perfect.
I needed this post this holiday season. Having lost many loved ones over the past several years it is a challenge at times to find a spark, however remote or dim it may be to brighten the holiday time period.
Last week I was thinking and it occurred to me why it may be so difficult to navigate. It is the longest holiday of the year. Meaning, build up to the climax of.
Merry Christmas Courtney! And again, thank you.
I love this!
Our star is crooked too! And I also love it. We got it the first Christmas my husband and I were living together (six years ago), and I used to spend a lot more effort trying–in vain–to straighten it than I do now. It wouldn’t sit straight even before we had a toddler and cat 🙂 I still think it’s beautiful.
Didn’t Charlie Brown teach us that an imperfect Christmas tree is the best kind of Christmas tree?
Happy holidays, Courtney!
Excellent post, I loved the theme and the way you expressed it.
And to you Jeff , I pray that you do have a spark of joy the rest of this holiday season. The loss of loved ones and a family that has dwindled is very hard this time of year. You lived out this post by sharing your “crooked star” with us. Your transparency is encouraging to others who struggle. God bless you .
Great reminder Courtney! I’ve found that embracing my imperfections not only makes me more relaxed, it makes those around me feel more st ease too. Perfection is inauthentic.
P.S, My star is crooked too and I didn’t even notice. Now that’s progress!
Merry Christmas!
When I was 24, I came home from grad school to find that my mother had thrown away all the ornaments we kids had made or my dad had collected over the years, and all the old but loved decorations, and had turned our tree into this tacky, cookie-cutter gold-lamé creation in imitation of something she saw at Macy’s. She asked what I thought, and I blurted, “But it’s so…SOULLESS.” She has narcissistic personality disorder, so she stomped up the stairs in a fury. I didn’t earn any points with my mother that Christmas, but I did inadvertently coin our family’s term for anything pretty but cold and meaningless: a soulless Christmas tree. It looks like your tree is anything but soulless (and 20 years later, I’m the mom, and our tree has plenty of soul too.). 🙂
We had a crooked angel! She holds a lighted candle…and when the bulb burned out, the best one we could find that fit was orange. So, a crooked angel with an orange candle flame. Now in my daughters home.
Thanks for another timely post, and happy holidays, Courtney and everyone!
I love the idea of celebrating our crookedness. It’s what makes us real.
Dear Courtney,
Thanks for the small reminder. I just arrived at my parents’ place for Christmas and was very disappointed at the sight of the Christmas tree… It’s small and bushy, wider than it is high and nothing like the huge straight and elegant trees we used to have most of the past years. (Never perfect but always impressive.) I couldn’t hold my tongue of course. Only afterwards I realized that my parents needed to save money this year and had cut a small part from a huge tree in their garden to use as the Christmas tree. And reading your post now I feel even more sorry. I’ll embrace that crooked little Christmas bush tomorrow which my mom decorated with so much love. And I’ll embrace my lovely crooked family and make the most of those days we have together.
Merry Christmas!
Needed this today. I often tell myself to “make your mistakes when no one is watching” but have found that it’s ok to make them when people are watching. You and I are both human and humans make mistakes.
The beauty of making mistakes in front of people is that you are relatable in your vulnerability. Too often society demands that we all be perfect 100% of the time. This is just not possible. Half the fun is making mistakes so that we may learn from them.
Love the crooked star analogy.
Take care.