Boo and the Christmas trees

Mr. Boo Kitty loves Christmas. Or maybe he just loves the Christmas trees!

As soon as we put up the trees and cover the base with a tree skirt, Boo has to curl up underneath them. He seems to favor the little tree during the day and the big tree at night. He doesn’t climb the tree or swat the ornaments as he did when he was a kitten. I do tie the little tree onto the sideboard so he can’t knock it off and we hang fragile ornaments out of the kitty’s reach, just in case.

When we began putting the Christmas village under the big tree last year, I thought Boo would no longer be able to curl up underneath that tree.

I thought wrong.

He daintily between the houses and curls up around the tree pole. I think of Azrael chasing the Smurfs. “Papa Smurf! Papa Smurf! Azrael is looking in the window! What are we going to do?”

Azrael/Boo Kitty doesn’t seem to notice any village dwellers. He just snoozes amid the buildings.

Unfortunately, Boo’s black fur shows up rather too well on our little tree’s white skirt. The big tree’s skirt is red and green, so the fur isn’t as obvious.

The white skirt is the first tree skirt I remember. It was originally just a piece of white felt cut to size. My brother and I received the stockings as Christmas gifts a couple years apart. (Mine is visible at far left.) For several years, our mother hung them from the door between our living and dining rooms.

I remember her standing in the doorway examining them. I wondered why. A few days later, she bought red and green felt. She cut out red felt bells, felt holly leaves and berries. She top-stitched the stockings, bells and holly to the skirt, then added Christmas ribbon around the skirt edges.

Several years later, she decided to make quilted tree skirts for herself, my brother and me. She stitched red and green Christmas fabric triangles for the top, then added a red ruffle around the edges. Bottom is the red fabric. Skirt ties in back. Since she would no longer be using the original tree skirt, I asked for and received it.

Boo Kitty loves them. And so do I.