Christmas is a powerful and beautiful time of year.
For lots of folks, it’s a time to celebrate love and life, and to spend the festivities in the company of good friends and family.
Of course, merry as Christmas is, it’s also a time of reflection for many people.
Christmas is joyful, but it’s also a poignant reminder of the souls who won’t be here to celebrate this year.
When everyone gathers around the tree, it’s important to remember the people who passed on before the holiday and honor them, like these three kiddos who lost their parents right before Christmas.
Christmas memorials are especially powerful when they also remember folks who risked their lives every single day, like the many men and women who served in law enforcement,
Recently, two anonymous police officers experienced that first-hand, when they accidentally headed to the wrong house and discovered an incredible Christmas tree right inside.
Scroll through below to learn more.
Thumbnail Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Our story starts with two pictures that were submitted anonymously to the Facebook page, “Police Officers.”
The photos of a blue-lit Christmas tree were posted on the page and then quickly taken off.
People reacted to the images 47,000 times and shared them nearly 25,000 times, once they realized what the blue trees signified.
The anonymous officer who shared the photos explains it all in his caption, writing:
“Partner and I accidentally went to the wrong address today on a run and stumbled across this beautiful tree.
“The owner took the time to write down every Officer killed in the line of duty this year and place it on the tree.”
The memorial wasn’t just the officers of the law, but also was their dedicated working dogs.
The anonymous officer adds:
“Not only did she do all the Humans but she included all the K9s on the small ornaments.
“She calls it the ‘Tree of Honor.’ Guess our paths were meant to cross since she just finished it last night.”
Everyone decorates their trees differently, and it usually reflects the personality of the person.
We love knowing that this woman looked into her heart and decided to make the “Tree of Honor” to reflect what’s most important to her.
Now that she has sparked the idea, we hope that lots of other people will take a similar approach to decking the halls.
Up close, you can see that each and every ornament is dedicated to an individual officer who died in the line of duty.
The ornaments are all blue or silver Christmas balls, and each one is hand-inscribed with the rank, name, and dates of an officer of the law.
They represent all of the officers (human and canine) that passed away in the line of duty in the past year.
Almost every big town and major city has a memorial of some kind to honor fallen officers, but there’s something incredibly powerful about the tree.
After all, Christmas is about celebrating, but it’s also about remembering the faces missing from the festivities.
If you love this powerful take on the classic Christmas tree, please be sure to SHARE with friends and family!
