Every Christmas many families gather around Christmas trees, and celebrate the birth of Christ. But as we all sadly acknowledge, a beginning must have an end. And so as Christ was nailed to a wooden cross, the Christmas tree must come down and be tossed from the home to die. This cycle of life and death is constant and timeless. If death is about ending, it is also a bearer of new life. The Fir Tree lives on in the seeds he produced and in the life he nourished from his death. Human nature's adherence to ritual and tradition echoes this cycle. At Christmas time a boy lovingly places on his tree the very same ornaments he will hang as an old man. These simple decorations become ornaments of memory, our deepest nostalgia made material. Like the Fir Tree, we grasp them in our slender branches, with youthful innocence and amazement, and the frightening realization that we may not be for evergreen.

The Fir Tree ornament collection is on exhibition in the Merriweather room on the first floor .