One Little Christmas Tree
In the spirit of Christmas I have to share the song that started my day.
One Little Christmas Tree is one of my all time favorite Christmas songs, for reasons that go beyond Stevie Wonders incredible voice.
There were many winter car trips to visit my family in northern Ohio. It's hard to explain the tradition and memories that were built in my grandparents "big yellow house" during Christmas. The crackle of the record player turning on right after Christmas Eve mass, the ridiculous spread of food, the plays put on by the cousins, the giant Whirlpool box to hide wrapping paper {and the occasional cousin 😆}, PopPop reading The Night Before Christmas, the year Santa dropped his bag down the chimney... I could go on and on.
Yet as I now am running my own family around for the holidays I've come to recognize another joy I used to completely overlook. The family road trip.
Throughout my childhood it was not uncommon to head out for the 3 1/2 hour trip to visit our extended family. So much so that even my friends back home knew about our home away from home... heck, I even went to homecoming with my cousins and their friends! And while there were countless times I dreaded the drive or would sleep through it, I now realize just how much I loved it.
Over the years our family got into the perfect groove with our travels. Where we'd stop for a quick bite to eat, what town had the best ice cream, and at what point in the drive we could call in our favorite pizza to grab right before we'd get to Grandmas.
Better than all of that though... being with my family. Even though we wouldn't always talk, we were together. And that togetherness would often take shape as a concert that would get us through the late night country roads. Queen, The Moody Blues, Carly Simon, Phil Collins, Neil Diamond, Elton John, Billy Joel, some mix CDs I'd eventually throw together on Limewire, or the real night time winner... Delilah - picking the hits to play right along with her inspirational words.
The trips during the holidays always meant Motown Christmas came out of its case. And that is where I first heard and fell in love with the song that sums up so much of how I feel about the world.
"One little Christmas tree
Can light up the world
So those who are lost may find their way" 🎄
Sometimes a small light - that one glimmer of hope - is truly all that is needed in someones world. When you feel lost it can be so incredibly hard to find the light. But the more people that make it shine, the more people that will be surrounded by hope.
These nights likely have a lot to do with why our family loves to road trip. We've made our routines. Our fun. Our playlists.
And made sure to not only find the light in the world, but bring what we can to shine it for others.
