Hang Them On the Tree

Song Meaning

This track presents a peculiar holiday ritual: transforming the year's accumulated emotional baggage into festive decorations. The narrator surveys a "terrible disgrace" of "trash around the place," items too difficult to discard as the year "is drawing near." Instead of letting them fester, the creative impulse is to repurpose these burdens, finding a way to "use them" by making them "part of Christmas Day." The core tension lies in the deliberate reframing of negative experiences. Sorrows from "last November" and quarrels from "last September," described as "sad and grey," are re-imagined. They are "colour[ed] shiny bright and gay" or "cover[ed] with a silver spray," then "hang[ed] on the tree." This act is a conscious effort to beautify and integrate past pain, turning it into something visually appealing, albeit artificially so. The most striking craft element is the juxtaposition of deeply personal, negative emotions with the cheerful, commercial imagery of Christmas. "Every worry, every fear" becomes an ornament, tied with "every tear" and made to "dance in a Christmas light." The lyrics suggest a profound, almost desperate, attempt to find beauty and closure by literally decorating with the year's troubles, transforming "mean things" into "red and green things." Ultimately, the effectiveness stems from this surprising, almost absurd, act of emotional alchemy. The narrator finds a way to "use up" and move past difficulties, suggesting that time and a deliberate creative act can recontextualize even the most painful memories. The final lines, "Paid for then, enjoyed much later," hint at a complex understanding of how past suffering can, in a strange way, contribute to a present sense of accomplishment or even beauty.