Homemade tree brings Nunavut mother and sons together after heartbreak
Last year it was a child's first Christmas tree, this year it's keeping spirits up at home
A homemade Christmas tree is bringing joy again this year to a mother and her two young sons in Resolute Bay.
Working from a YouTube video, Lisa Komangapik crafted her own kind of evergreen last year using the cardboard box from her new TV stand.
It was the first Christmas tree she had put up since losing her daughter in an ATV accident seven years ago. Because her youngest was an infant at the time, it's also the first tree he's had at home.
This year, the crafty tree is brightening up time spent at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Made of eight rings wrapped in green painters tape that hang together using invisible fishing line, the 3D-tree looks like it's floating from the ceiling. Decked in shiny bulbs and coloured lights, it's a holiday masterpiece.
Komangapik said she made this tree to help herself look to the future, and as a present for her youngest son, to share the experience of Christmas.
"I was deep in grief and time was passing by. I finally gave him something to look forward to last Christmas," she said. "It was bittersweet. It was something for him to remember. And at the same time, I was thinking about my other children."
One tough young critic
But she faced one challenge while making the tree — until it was all decorated, seven-year-old Akoela thought he liked his auntie's homemade tree better than his mom's.
"I decorated with the lights and the ornaments and then he came and I asked him if he still liked his (auntie's) tree better and he sheepishly said, 'nooo'," Komangapik said.
"I was so pleased with myself that I got him something that he really likes. And he got in under the tree and I took a picture. He was so happy with it. That made my day."
There are no real Christmas trees for sale at the Arctic Co-op in Resolute Bay this year. And it costs between $200 and $400 to buy an artificial one locally.
Komangapik says her homemade tree folds up flat for storing and is just as good as it was last year. She's looking forward to building more family memories around it.
"It makes my boys happier and they look forward to Christmas and they love having their candy canes on the tree, they get to have one everyday," she said.
