Christmas Trees

My first memories of Christmas trees were of my dad and I heading to the neighborhood lot to pick out a tree mom would like and dad would be willing to pay for.  It took a bit of compromise.  I do recall we paid as high as $5.00 for a tree, but most were around $3.00.  A $2.00 splurge was a big deal because you could buy a pair of shoes for about the same price.  He chose a Balsam Fir most of the time.  If it had a flat side, we just put it against the wall.

Mom supervised the decorating of the tree.  The three kids got to help, and she rearranged things after we went to bed. Dad just made sure it stood straight in the tree stand and helped with the lights.

I don’t recall the year, but Mom bought an artificial aluminum tree with a color wheel.  She probably bought it on sale one year and used it the next.  The tree changed colors as the wheel slowly turned.  That didn’t feel like Christmas to me.

My junior year of college was the first time I bought a tree.  My roommates and I chipped in.  If we had lights, we probably took them from home.  Decorations were sparse.  The tree I remember most was our senior year.  We left it up while we all went home for two weeks.  When we returned, the tree was almost bare.  The needles were piled high on the carpet.

Don, AKA Fuzzy, scooped up most of the needles and then used the vacuum cleaner.  That was probably a bad idea, because the vacuum got jammed. Every time we used it, the apartment smelled like pine.

I put up my last apartment tree during my second year of teaching.  I was living with Chuck, and he picked out the tree.  The only other thing I remember was the pair of skimpy pink panties we placed on its top in place of the more traditional star.  We took our laundry to the laundromat during those days.  When I took my final load out of the dryer, I found the panties.  They were probably forgotten by some slender hot chick in a prior load.  In any case, they landed on top of our tree that year.  It was the envy of all our friends.

Ruth and I were married by the following Christmas.  We had lived with Chuck during the beginning of our marriage, her parents for three weeks, but we moved to our own place by Christmas.  The cost conscious, design wise, Ruth pondered tree purchase in the blink of an eye.  She chose the scrawniest tree and made it beautiful.  It was a personal challenge she set for herself.  She did an awesome job.

When the kids came, Christmas took on a whole new meaning.  We had something to share with more than each other.  Christmas was spectacular and each tree more special than the last.  Some years we had trees in every room of the house.  They weren’t huge, but they were carefully crafted.  Each had a theme.  We had bear trees, clown trees, angel trees, ribbon trees, star trees, costume jewelry trees, and a silver bell tree. Some started as unrecognizable twigs and became the center piece of the room. They were wonderful.

TBC