One of the – let’s face it, many – weird and wonderful things about Wimbledon High School is the traditions which are unlike those at any other school anyone’s ever encountered. There’s the raucous and occasionally terrifying shouting in an otherwise extremely prim, Victorian school song; there’s the singing of happy birthday to ourselves – who does that, I mean who? Other than total narcissists?; there’s the annual romp around the common in feminist t-shirts, which must, let’s face it, strike deep fear into the hearts of the local citizens; and then of course there’s the Christmas tree assembly. Not the Christmas assembly, as you’d have in a normal school; nope – the Christmas tree assembly – an entire assembly dedicated to the veneration of a tree. When you think about it, that’s wild. And the kind of thing my mother would have been really up for back in the sixties, I have no doubt.
So of course dwelling on this got me thinking about Christmas trees and the great joy we take in them. And don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with the Victoriana Dickensian Albertian details of how the Christmas tree came to be introduced into this country, nor am I going to talk about the annual gift from Norway of the tree which stands in Trafalgar Square; instead I want to think about the perennial nature of the Christmas tree – or the fir more widely – and why we might look to it truly for comfort and indeed joy, not only as we approach what may be a challenging festive season once again, but also as we look ahead to 2022 and the uncertainties of what it may bring.
In the lovely German carol ‘o Tannenbaum o Tannenbaum’ or for us ‘O Christmas tree o Christmas tree’, it’s not just the beauty of the tree which is heralded, but also it’s perennial, solidity, the unchanging nature of the tree, and the fact that it has
branches green in summer’s glow
And evergreen in winter’s snow
The Christmas tree, the carol tells us, always stays the same – green, and strong, and solid – whatever the weather around it. The wind may shake it, the rain may drench it, and the snow may cover its greenness, but underneath, it stays the same, always.
And isn’t that a wonderful, abiding image for Christmas? If i could ask one thing of all of you this christmas – your present to me, if you like – it would be to be just like the Christmas tree, to do all you can to hang on to the you-ness of you, to know that the core of who you are stays the same, whatever comes your way. It’s been a really difficult year, hasn’t it, but there’s also been joy and wonder – and that comes from you. So hang on to who you are, whatever is to come, whatever has been; and think of that Christmas tree in your mind’s eye when the winds shake you hard.
Let’s have a lovely assembly and then a joyful week and a half ahead of celebrations.