The Lighting of a Christmas Tree

I’ve always had a thing for Christmas trees. When I was a little girl, we had a small one which was displayed by my parents every Christmas. When it was not in use, it was carefully wrapped up in newspaper and kept in a corner of the storeroom. Kept with it were small boxes of decorations – baubles, little angels, reindeer, snowmen and of course Santa Claus. And every year we would expand this collection with new ornaments!

On Christmas Eve, we would bring out the little tree and decorate it, then stand back and look at it proudly. Oh yes, we also added bits of cotton wool to the branches to represent snow. .Even without lights, the tree looked good. We later gave away the tree to The Little Sisters of the Poor; I can't remember why we did that, maybe because we had all become too busy to set up the tree every Christmas.

When I read about the tree lighting ceremony organized by Sandy Bay Paradise Beach Resort last Thursday, I decided not to miss it especially as it was for charity. I took mum along and we were pleasantly surprised when Santa Clause met us at the entrance of the hotel. We then joined the various people who had turned up to watch the event. The invited guests had seats which had pink and yellow balloons tied to them. We were later also given small candles to hold.

After the VIPs’ arrival, a few short speeches and a musical performance, someone pressed the magic button and the gigantic Christmas tree came alive with hundreds of blue, red and yellow lights. Quite a feast for the eyes!

This is the second year that Sandy By has organized this event and funds raised will be channeled to the National Cancer Society. I managed to take a few photographs, however they did not turn out too well. Time I changed my camera!

Merry Christmas everyone!