The lack of snow in eastern Ontario has dampened the Christmas spirit, but only just a little.

Holiday preparations are still moving forward in most households at breakaway speeds. Our home is no different as we are quickly preparing our house for the coming celebrations and rituals - not least of which is putting up the Christmas tree.

After your festive Norman Rockwell family tree-trimming party, do members of your family steal back into the living room to secretly rearrange the Christmas tree ornaments so that their favourite hockey team ornament is front and centre?

Yeah, mine too. I’m getting pretty tired of it.

Martha Stewart would not be impressed with our Christmas tree - it’s an eclectic mix of ornaments, some of which date back to before I was married. Our tree proudly displays all the kids’ school-made treasures, ornaments from places we’ve travelled, and those that have been gifted to us that we cherished throughout the years and proudly display on our tree – except for those that have met a swift and sad demise when introduced into a household with dogs and cats.

And then there are the hockey-themed ornaments.

How is that that years ago when we took the kids to Disney to escape hockey, it was only to come back with a whack-load of Disney-characters-playing-hockey Christmas ornaments? Was there ever a Mickey Mouse episode in which he played hockey? Yet here in our house, Mickey, Goofy and Donald appear annually among the ceramic Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and wise men in our nativity scene. The Disney additions make for some crazy looking shepherds. I know, there’s a special place in heaven for a hockey mom who does that to such a sacred Christmas custom.

And each year, there seem to be more and more NHL team ornaments crowding out my favourite little Sens ornament that I received as a house-warming gift 16 years ago on our move to Ottawa (only a hockey family would receive hockey ornaments as a house-warming or hostess gift, right?!).

During the tree-trimming, I proudly display that ornament front and centre and yet somehow, somebody (or somebodies) keeps moving the Habs ornament to the front, and somebody (or somebodies) then move the Leafs ornament to the front. And I don’t think it’s that naughty Elf on the Shelf either! 

I suppose it is a little unusual for a family of five to somehow manage to support five different NHL teams. We are clearly not #UnitedInRed! I have friends here in Ottawa who consider this to be a serious failure in parenting. However, we are who we are and our varied fan devotion makes for a colourful and distinctly unique Christmas tree. (But make no mistake: if that Leafs or Habs ornament blocks my Sens ornament one more time, they’ll be decorating some litter box somewhere.) 

In closing, I would like to wish all HockeyNow readers a happy hockey Christmas with three cheers for your hockey Christmas tree – may your favourite ornament shine the brightest this season!