a cardboard Christmas

I did not bring a single Christmas decoration with us to Africa. Not a one.

Oh wait. Okay that's not entirely true.....I did bring a box of Christmas legos. Not sure if that counts....but that's all we have this year.

No big puffy tree.
No ornaments.
No lights.
No wreaths.
No angel.
None of my snowmen figurines.
Not my Christmas Minnie and Mickey stuffed dolls that go on my couch every year.
No garland.
No Christmas village set.
No holiday cups or plates.
No red and green table cloths.

It's all back in D.C. somewhere, stuffed in a box, not to be seen for a few years.

I thought about bringing it, but honestly, we couldn't bring a lot with us, and we just didn't have the weight allowance to bring over extra stuff like that. A lot of stuff had to stay behind.

So, I decided we're doing Christmas different in Burkina.

I decided we don't need the green tree, or the wreath or the lights to celebrate. We don't need the snow or cold weather or hot chocolate to make it feel more like Christmas.

Burkinabé's have celebrated Christmas here, in the bareness sub-Saharan desert, where cold weather and Christmas trees are just as foreign to them as white people! :~) And it doesn't detract from their joy. And it will not detract from ours either.

Instead, I made a tree for us out of some leftover cardboard boxes.

It took me a few hours of measuring, sawing everything out with a knife, wrapping each piece in burlap and hot gluing it. And then I made the star out of cardboard as well. Measured, sawed, wrapped and hot glued. Fortunately I had some burlap scraps left over in the small amount of fabric I brought over, and there was just enough to cover everything. My mom sent me a birthday box that I got on Monday and inside was some gold ribbon that I used on the star. The ornaments are silver and gold paper gift tags I got from Target last year for $ .30.

And the bigger stars we picked up from a local orphanage a few weeks ago that the kids make to earn money.

I used some rocks from our yard and wrapped them in floral wire that I had, and cut out some more cardboard stars and put some stickers on them that say, "Joy to the world."

It's not much.

But it's enough.

And I quite like it. It is simple and bare and understated and reminds me of Burkina.

I like, that when I walk into our home this Christmas season, I'm not overwhelmed with the decorations. Which is funny, funny that I would like it so much because I am a gal that loves me some Christmas bling. When it comes to Christmas I've always been the bigger the better. The more Christmas trees the merrier. The more lights the prettier.

But not this year. I'm rather excited at the opportunity we have to forgo all the traditional decor. To take our focus off the decorations that very easily distract me from the real reason why I painstakingly put them up to begin with.

Instead, I look at the few modest stars that grace our modest tree and I am reminded of the star that our Lord placed in the sky. The star that He used to beckon us to Him. The star, that the men left everything for, set out on a quest to follow, that led them to their Savior.

He has been stripping us bare since we moved to Burkina...and it is only fitting that this Christmas season be stripped bare of anything that hinders our hearts from fully engaging with Him and the truth of why we celebrate Christmas. 

This Christmas season, I want to be overwhelmed by the Lord and the truth that He beckons us to come to Him. Because He loves us. The truth that everything is under His power. That He can simply speak and manipulate the stars in the sky to get our attention. That is what I want my heart to rest on.

This year....I want to be dazzled by my King. Not the lights on a tree.