Grand Tidings of Comfort and Joy

There is first that pause, just after dawn, when a child wonders why he is awake so early. Then comes the realization: it is Christmas morning, and all the visions of sugarplums and electronic video games have been miraculously transformed, he hopes, into a heap of treasures waiting beneath the family tree.

Across the land this week, millions of these marvelous trees are being bought, carted home, decorated, admired. At the White House the Carter family has three trees. A 30-foot spruce, lighted last week, graces the Ellipse and serves as the na tional tree.. A 20-foot fir, surrounded by antique toys and a miniature house set up by Amy, dominates the Blue Room. Another tree stands in the upstairs living quarters. But on Christmas morning, Amy and her family expect to be in Plains, where they will celebrate beside a tree cut this week by the President himself.

Christmas trees in America are public monuments too, symbols of communal celebration. In Bath, Me., the town's tree was placed atop a shipyard's 400-foot crane so it could be seen 30 miles away.

Merchants are as tree-happy as any.

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