My inherited faith is Hinduism. But, I lived at a time and place, where Hindus celebrated Xmas and Eid with as much gusto as they did Holi and Diwali. While, I have always had a neutral stance towards having a Xmas tree at home, we never actually set up one after moving to the US more than 15 years ago, just as we did not observe any festival, Hindu or otherwise. However, this year, when my three-year old suddenly started coo-ing over every Xmas tree she saw, and, asking if we could add a star to our neighbor’s Xmas tree, I figured that it was time to have a tree of our own. My only criteria was that we make it out of things we already have at home. No! we were not going to join in the “buy buy buy” spirit pushed on to us by every form of media. After, considering packing boxes, hangers, and books …(no! I refer to most of them quite often!), we decided to make it out of the Legos we had recently acquired, from our friend’s son, who had outgrown them! While, my husband set about the task of making breakfast, my daughter and I set about the task of separating the red and green lego blocks. Much to our horror, we found that we had very few green and red blocks, and worse, they were mostly of the 2×2 kind, which, makes it really hard to cantilever blocks, or step them back in with any degree of structural stability. So, we, threw in the yellow blocks to have a tree that was at least more than 6″ tall. So, here we are, with our not very conical or leafy tree, and, a nativity scene… done, before breakfast was done! Cost of tree: 0$. Having a three-year old get involved: Priceless!
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