“Shuttlecraft to Enterprise, shuttlecraft to Enterprise. Spock here, Happy Holidays, Live Long and Prosper.”
That’s one of my favorite sounds towards the end of November through December. It’s the sound of the Galileo Shuttlecraft ornament on my family’s Christmas tree (for those of you who don’t know, the Galileo was a shuttlecraft on the USS Enterprise from the original series of Star Trek). When I was younger I remember pressing the button to start the sound over and over again, hearing “shuttle shuttle shut shuttle shuttlecraft” again and again. When I got home on Saturday after visiting my grandfather and cousins, pressing that button was the first thing I did.
As per tradition, the Christmas tree in my house went up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Aboard the tree are a plethora of ornaments representing the different interests of my family throughout the past couple decades.
The first set of ornaments I notice are generally the Star Trek ornaments; Data at his console aboard the bridge, the USS Enterprise D, the USS Voyager, and the aforementioned Galileo Shuttlecraft. These ornaments are some of my favorites; I watched Star Trek frequently with my family during my middle school years (the complete 7 seasons of The Next Generation, the 4 seasons of Enterprise, a little bit of the Original Series, and a good amount of Voyager) and the ornaments bring back fond memories. The ornaments especially remind me of my first few Christmases and are always nice additions to see on the tree.
The next ornaments I noticed this year were the multitudes of ornaments of characters from children’s shows and children’s movies. There are innumerable Mickey and Minnie Mice that adorn the tree in concert with Winnie the Pooh, Goofy, Simba, and many others. Disney characters were very prevalent in my childhood, as, like other children, I watched Disney movies such as A Bug’s Life, The Lion King, and the Pixar movie Toy Story. Woody and Buzz Lightyear are on the tree as well, relics of a long past era (although Toy Story 3 was rather recent and was very good).
In addition to the Disney characters, Thomas the Tank Engine and his friend Percy also are present. Thomas was one of my favorite shows as a child, and I still remember countless hours playing with the train sets that my parents gave to me.
The most frequent kind of ornament on the tree is the kind from an interesting place in the world. There are ornaments from all over; Washington DC, Mount Rushmore, India, Greece, Chicago, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and many other countries. The ornaments themselves are rather interesting; they range from orbs bearing the name of their origin (not the origin of their production or they’d all be saying China) to little Greek soldiers and blue and white Greek houses and an elephant from India. The number of these ornaments increases as the number of places my family and I visit increases; no doubt there will be an Argentinean ornament at the end of the year.
Then comes the occasional Frank Lloyd Wright ornaments. My dad, being a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, has accumulated a few interesting Frank Lloyd Wright ornaments. I’ve counted one or two, but have not found more, probably because I haven’t looked hard enough.
Musical instruments are surprisingly infrequent on the Christmas tree; I’ve seen a cello and a French horn, neither of which anyone in the family plays. I swear I’ve been given a saxophone ornament in the past the location of which is unknown to me.
Last but certainly not least is the lone R2-D2 ornament without any other Star Wars paraphernalia on the remainder of the tree. As a member of a family that enjoys Star Wars, I am surprised by the lack of additional Star Wars ornaments. However, I can’t imagine that a random Jedi would look good on the tree; Kit Fisto hardly invokes a Christmas spirit.
For the next month and a half, I’ll be able to look at the ornaments on the tree and remember the past Christmases I’ve had. It’s an enjoyable experience, and I can expect to hear many more holiday greetings from Spock through January.
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