Chapter Text
“O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu (grün: modern version) sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit, Nein, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, Wie treu (grün: modern version) sind deine Blätter!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit, Gibt Mut und Kraft zu jeder Zeit!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum, Dein Kleid will mich was lehren!”
Christine obviously never took voice lessons but she did take a lot of German lessons. Decorating the rec room Christmas tree made her feel lonesome for home. She sang softly in good German. Nobody understood Christmas really anymore. They saw it as a pagan holiday appropriated by Christians. It was not. There was an effigy of a Christmas tree in the Hagia Sophia long before any Vikings celebrating Yule came along. The Christmas tree was an adapation of the ancient Persian Paradise Tree.
She didn’t hear the door hiss open as Pike and Spock walked in, sneaking in on her secret secret project. She was ticked but tried not to show it.
Pike was the first to speak. “I thought we were doing Santa this year.”
Chapel gave him an annoyed look. ‘You mean Saint Nicholas? Saint Nicholas was a real person. He was known for his generosity and charity. He visited the poor, carrying a bag with him all the time. As a Bishop he was known for his love of children and patron of sailors and ships. He’s an appropriate patron Saint for Enterprise as a result. If anyone needed anything he reached in that huge satchel and would come up with some cloth or a pair of shoes or whatever was needed. It is untrue that ancient Christian lands just let the peasants go hungry.”
Spock and Pike each raised an eyebrow in unison.
Chapel took a deep breath. “Sorry, but the adulteration of Christmas annoys me to no end.”
Spock chimed in. “A holiday of feasting, inebriation, spoiling children and in general childish behavior.”
Chapel gaped at him, shocked. “You’ve been playing poker with the boys again I see! Christmas begins at Advent with 24 days of fasting. After Advent comes twelve feast days, each day for one of the 12 apostles of Jesus.”
Spock WAS surprised. “Christmas is a religious holiday?”
Chapel huffed. “Yes.”
Pike, ever the diplomat said “Can we help?”
“Yes”, Chapel replied. “Go stand over there and tell me if the tree is straight and if everything looks balanced and even”.
They shrugged together but complied.
After a few seconds Spock informed her that the tree was off true ninety degrees by 1.46 degrees.
“Good enough.”
“What is the significance of this particular decoration?”
Chapel looked at him happily. “The tree is the world and believers are all the lights on it. We are linked. We’re supposed to light up the world. Imagine if 8 billion people or so all believed that they were linked mind to mind and soul to soul together to make the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth what they could accomplish”
“Teamwork!” exclaimed Pike.
Spock looked disturbed. “Are you trying to tell us this represents a metaphysical union?”
Chapel grinned. “Yes!”
“How would humans achieve such a thing?” Spock was even more perplexed
“Rituals” She replied. ‘Rituals like communion. Communion is a bonding ritual, bonding the faithful to their leader Jesus Christ, who, by the way is whose birth we are celebrating.”
Pike looked irritated. “Jesus wasn’t born on Dec25th.”
Chapel looked at him with pity. “No. And the King of old Britain wasn’t born in June, but his birthday is celebrated in June. We celebrate his birth on this day. Other churches chose another day.”
Pike twisted his mouth. “I’m gonna lose aren’t I?”
Chapel screwed up her nose at him. “Yes you are. I am the Christmas expert. It was no evolution from Saturnalia. It was not an adaptation of German Druidic religion worshipping pine trees. It is unique.” She stood back from her work. “Does it look ok?”
Pike decided to poke her again. “I thought we’d have some elves and Jolly Santa and some egg nog.”
“You do Christmas your way. I’ll do it my way.
Pike laughed a bit and left.
Spock remained, his hands behind his back, in his characteristic “I am working on something emotional here.” pose. Chapel walked over and stood beside him examining her décor.
“Are humans telepathic Christine?”
“I’m glad you asked. Yes we are.”
“How could 8 billion minds communicate with such effectiveness?”
“It’s spiritual communication, and leadership. The Kingdom of Heaven is not made with hands.”
“Ah!”
“Every time we take communion we are setting an intention in our mind to be joined as one. That intention done over and over and over again programs our subconscious to accomplish that aim. It’s magic Spock.”
She walked to a box on a table and took out a mistletoe ball.
“I suppose this has significance as well.”
“Mistletoe symbolizes peace. Two enemies if they meet under a ball of mistletoe must put down their weapons and exchange a kiss of peace.”
“How useful. Somehow I get the impression humans have adapted this for other purposes.”
“It’s only a peck. Making out at Christmas parties is in bad taste.” She began dragging the ladder over to the site she had preordained for it to hang. “Humans have lost their cultural moorings and I hate it.”
Spock was still mulling the implications of human telepathy
“Christine,” Spock began as he handed her the ball as she got on the ladder, “could this mind tree be used for nefarious purposes?”
“Not this one. It’s a sacred tree and Jesus is the King of it according to the old tradition. Since Jesus is the Perfect Son of God he cannot sin. BUT other mind links have been formed in other ways with other magic and it was evil.
“We shall have to discuss Magic some time.”
Christine held the ball over his head up on the ladder and reached down and kissed him on the cheek. “Merry Christmas Spock”
“Vulcans worship a god of Peace.”
“So do we Spock.”
“