{"id":450,"date":"2021-12-08T11:55:14","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T11:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/?p=450"},"modified":"2023-01-11T09:38:07","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T09:38:07","slug":"christmas-tree-assembly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/2021\/12\/08\/christmas-tree-assembly\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Tree Assembly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of the \u2013 let\u2019s face it, many \u2013 weird and wonderful things about Wimbledon High School is the traditions which are unlike those at any other school anyone\u2019s ever encountered. There\u2019s the raucous and occasionally terrifying shouting in an otherwise extremely prim, Victorian school song; there\u2019s the singing of happy birthday to ourselves \u2013 who does that, I mean who? Other than total narcissists?; there\u2019s the annual romp around the common in feminist t-shirts, which must, let\u2019s face it, strike deep fear into the hearts of the local citizens; and then of course there\u2019s the Christmas tree assembly. Not the Christmas <\/em>assembly, as you\u2019d have in a normal school; nope \u2013 the Christmas tree<\/em> assembly \u2013 an entire assembly dedicated to the veneration of a tree. When you think about it, that\u2019s wild. And the kind of thing my mother would have been really up for back in the sixties, I have no doubt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So of course dwelling on this got me thinking about Christmas trees and the great joy we take in them. And don\u2019t worry, I\u2019m 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 \u2013 or the fir more widely \u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lovely German carol \u2018o Tannenbaum o Tannenbaum\u2019 or for us \u2018O Christmas tree o Christmas tree\u2019,  it\u2019s not just the beauty of the tree which is heralded, but also it\u2019s perennial, solidity, the unchanging nature of the tree, and the fact that it has <\/p>\n\n\n\n

branches green in summer’s glow<\/em>\u00a0
And evergreen in winter’s snow<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Christmas tree, the carol tells us, always stays the same \u2013 green, and strong, and solid \u2013 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And isn\u2019t that a wonderful, abiding image for Christmas? If i could ask one thing of all of you this christmas \u2013 your present to me, if you like \u2013 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\u2019s been a really difficult year, hasn\u2019t it, but there\u2019s also been joy and wonder \u2013 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\u2019s eye when the winds shake you hard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s have a lovely assembly and then a joyful week and a half ahead of celebrations.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the \u2013 let\u2019s face it, many \u2013 weird and wonderful things about Wimbledon High School is the traditions which are unlike those at any other school anyone\u2019s ever encountered. There\u2019s the raucous and occasionally terrifying shouting in an otherwise extremely prim, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,39,40],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452,"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/whs-blogs.co.uk\/heads-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}