I always used to think December is the month when nature celebrates itself. Afterall, it brings Christmas. Misty mornings, dew drops on flowers and grass that line the way side, not so hot days, golden afternoon light, early sunset, chilling nights( well… not so chilling compared to other parts of the world) and most of all, the thought about Christmas eve and crib decorations. School term exams that fall in December were really a spoil sport and I used to long for them to get over to enjoy the ten days of Christmas holidays.
Christmas eve used to be the busiest. Main activity is to decorate the crib. The typical way of doing it is to use a coffee table as the base, attach sticks to its legs, then tie up sticks on to them to make a frame for a thatched shed. Dry hay, straws and other foliage used to decorate it used come from neighbouring paddy fields, farms and our own courtyard. I would spend days altogether in collecting all these materials. It was such a fun doing all these since friends from nearby households also will be doing the same and we would venture into every field, every farm to get what we needed.
I still remember the first Christmas crib in our home when I was a little kid. My father had made the frame for a tiny cow shed out of coconut tree fibers. I watched the way he cut news papers to make it look like a thatched shed. He then placed it inside a wall shelf and covered the entire cavity using foliage. The tiny clay figures of Joseph and Mary and a shepherd were placed inside the shed and , baby Jesus inside the manger to complete the nativity scene. We used to make sure it was soft enough for baby Jesus to be comfortable!.I was so happy to see the crib in our home as all our neighbors used to make it every year.
We did'nt have the luxury of electricity in our locality those days. Electricity connection came in many years later. So, beautiful christmas lights sold in shops were of no use for us. So my father bought a paper lantern, which had a candle holder inside. This was made for lighting candles inside and was called star-lantern. We hung it in front of our house and lit a candle inside. This first christmas light is very vivid in my memory. I never moved from beneath the lantern and watched every flicker of the candle. The deep pink coloured light that spread in our courtyard in an otherwise dark night was a treat to my little eyes.
We waited long into the night for the carol band to arrive. When they were near our house, my father took out the lantern to place a new candle inside it. He then tried to hang it again on the tiny hook on our front window shade and that's when the new long candle flipped inside the lantern. Alas! Fire swallowed my sweat little lantern. My father blew it out immediately, but then the damage was done!. The lantern got burnt almost to the half and we had to keep it aside. I still remember those burnt pink paper rings kept in one corner and the nostalgia surrounding that Christmas light gives me a heart burn every Christmas.
I used to decorate the crib every year ever since I could do it on my own. Few years later we got the luxury of electricity and we were able to put up those beautiful star shaped christmas lights. But the very first christmas crib my father made for me and the very first star-lantern that made my eyes wide in wonder are still the first images that come to my mind when December arrives with its cold breeze.
Another December is here and here I am shuddering at the thought of doing the same Christmas crib for my kid, for the fact that, I have to do all these in plastic. Plastic trees, plastic loan, plastic leaves, plastic flowers… and at the end, the magic of lights waiting for the tap of a switch. I feel sad, for living in the tiny concrete capsule in Bangalore that we call our home now, he doesn't have a chance to experience the true joy of this season. I now have every material, every tool needed to build a perfect beautiful crib. But it will never match the timeless joy of doing it as I did it when I was a kid. There's glitter at the tap of a switch, but they don't light a fire within my heart.
