December 6, 2005

• O Christmas Tree!

  When I contemplate my favorite Christmas tree, I remember the one my family had when I was 14.
  Because of our large family, we often ended up with “orphan
  trees”.  These were trees that may have fallen off of fast moving
  vehicles, been dumped by the roadside, or were malformed in some way
  that negated their sale.  We normally put our tree up the week of
  Christmas. 
  This particular year, I believe it was 1973, our tree was one that had
  a double trunk.   It was huge!  It filled the corner of our
  living room.  Dad had to shave the trunk(s) down in order for it
  to fit in the tree stand.
  It was decorated with all these old fashioned ornaments as well as
  family keepsakes.  (construction paper with macaroni, canning jar
  lids with glitter and our pics, etc.) The lights were verrrry old
  (1940′s) bubble lights, 1970′s twinkle lights and the regular lights of
  the 1960′s.  Added to this was a string of ornament type lights
  that had little scenes inside.  Topping the tree was an angel that
  my mom got in the 1950′s.  She was beautiful.  She was
  plastic with silver stars painted on her gown and she had a wand in her
  had that was a bubbler.  She lit up and had long white blond hair
  that was “real”.  One set of ornaments were these little plastic
  things that looked like bird cages.  You hung them above the
  lights and the heat from the lights would make theses little windmills
  inside turn.  It gave movement to the tree.  Adding to that
  movement were the shimmering silver icicles.  Every time the
  furnace kicked on they swayed in the soft breeze, catching the lights
  like fairy lights. 
  I loved staying up late (past ten o’clock- hey! we were farmers) and
  turning off all the lights but the Christmas tree and just listening to
  Christmas Carols on my record player and enjoying the solitude with my
  cat, Snowball.

  My present day Christmas tree came in a box with the lights on
  it.  It is small, 4 ft. It stands upon a table. Underneath, I
  usually arrange a nativity set that I purchased when I first got
  married.  It is a Precious Moments one. I like to put it on a dark
  red satin table cloth/tree skirt.  Then we arrange the presents
  around all this.  We decorate the tree with ornaments that are
  keepsakes.  There is a lit star (it has tinsel and twinkle lites)
  on the top.  I still have the angel from my childhood, but she is
  too fragile to use.  She sits on the mantle with the huge angel my
  husband bought for me on our first date.  One of my favorite
  decorations I have put out annually is the snowman my friend Jackie
  made for me.  He is roasting a marshmallow over a fire in a
  can.  Too cute!  I also have a Santa Claus collection that
  shares the mantle.

  I just had a mini-vacation but did not get the housecleaning done that
  I wanted to do before decorating.  I figure I’ll do it soon and
  then put up the decorations.  I am getting more and more in the
  spirit.

  I would like to thank ilsurvive for inspiring this entry.  Why not go visit her, too?

  • 9:59 am
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