New Greeting Card: String of Lights

Told you I was busy making Christmas cards!

The typical American Christmas tree: loaded down with a mish-mash of sparkly stars, red and green and silver globes, an heirloom or two, clumsily-fashioned and slightly crumpled paper chains from first grade, strings of beads, bursts of tinsel (most of which end up on the rug), that one extra-special-don't-even-think-about-dropping-it glass star and - the copious ropes of lights whose twisted puzzle of cord and bulb try the patience of many a saintly parent.

But without the lights the fragrant symbol of Christmas remains simply a pine tree with shiny things hanging from it.  The lights made the tree - in my childish estimation - and plugging that cord in and seeing the tree assume its new glowing persona was as magical as the first snow of the season or the appearance on Christmas morning of piles of presents where once there were none.

For the most part, the iconic lights from my childhood have been replaced by the tiny, unassuming string of lights available at every Walmart, grocery store, convenience store and drugstore on the planet. The bigger bulbs from yesteryear were ridiculously fragile, prone to getting frighteningly hot and cumbersome to pack and store - but once aglow they adorned a tree with magic.

Find my String of Lights card at Empty on the Inside.