Ooh Christmas Tree !!!

[jeffsmith]

It seems every Christmas Movie has a significant chapter about a Christmas Tree

I must confess growing up I Hated our Christmas Tree, it was a silver aluminum tree from the mid 50's. It was Ugly and putting it together or taking it apart involved handling very sticky "branches" that shed the aluminum needles with every movement. But it's what my parents had and so that what we used.

Occasionally though we did get a "Real" Christmas tree. But Dad/Smitty was the epitome of a Thrifty Scotsman. The trees Dad usually bought made the Charlie Brown tree look Magnificent. They may have been a slight improvement over the aluminum tree, but Only Slight.

I was living at home in my mid-20's when I had had enough. I told my family that I was buying the tree that year because I was tired of having a completely substandard tree.

I won't bore you with the details of my search (mostly because I don't remember) but I found a tree I liked. It was tall and full and didn't fit in the back of my car hardly at all. I had to tie down the hatchback as it wouldn't close.

When I got it home and my dad came out to bring it into the house his verbal response definitely was not something I want to put into writing. As he took it out of my car we both noticed the reason it was so full was it had not one but Two trunks; and they came together at the bottom in a single end that was to big for any standard Christmas tree stand.

Putting the tree up required a small engineering feat. Dad used a hatchet to trim the bottom so it mostly fit inside the tree stand and he had to nail that into the living room floor. Additionally, he had to use twine as supporting "guy-wires" attached to the walls to keep it from falling over. It had taken some effort but we finally had a Christmas Tree I could be proud of !!

The Epilogue is that after Christmas the tree took almost as much work to remove as it had to install. I was never again allowed to go looking for a tree and we used the aluminum one (which my sister still has stored) for years after that.

But, that tree was the Best tree my family ever had and it's a Christmas I will Always remember!

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

My family had several farms around central Ohio. The one just south of Delaware, Ohio had been owned by a retired pro golfer that hated his neighbor to the south (where the Wal-Mart is now), so he planted hundreds of pines as a screen. Those trees put of pinecones that squirrels drug everywhere and the next generation of Scotch Pines were in the 5 foot to 10 foot range in 1978 when I got married. For the first Christmas of our marriage, We hoped in the pick-up the weekend following Thanksgiving, and drove to that farm. I owned a few chainsaws, but I felt this project required my finest ax, and a family bowsaw that predated me! Under the watchful eye of the Highway Patrol post, we trudged for about 45 minutes until I found the perfect wild tree. Never before in its life had it been trimmed or pruned, yet it was perfect on all sides, and it allowed for the 8' ceiling. On the way home, we stopped at a "Discounter" and bought a tree holder, our first string of lights, and 2 dozen red ornaments. By 6 o'clock, the tree was up and decorated. Such a naked tree! That evening we popped pop corn and use sewing thread to make pop corn strings! It was a little sparse on decorations, but that was the first Christmas of our family!

Since then we usually don't have a tree. But then I haven't seen a tree that melted my heart like that one. This is the 44 year of our life together, my kids are in 3 states, and unlike me; They have a tree every year!

Ivan

 

[Greyman50]

Will never forget Christmas as a kid with my pet coon. You're right, ole Rufus got in the living room and climbed the 8' tall Christmas tree that we spent a whole day decorating. He was at the top reaching for a shinny silver colored ornament when the tree fell over! My Mother chased him out with a broom, my Dad just chuckled and I had to keep quiet, LOL

 

[Buford57]

Our first married Christmas together was spent in a tiny basement apartment. Not only did we have no room for a tree, we couldn't have afforded one unless it was sagebrush. When I got home from a shift in which an armored car had been robbed and the guard killed I found that my bride had taped green garland to the wall in the shape of a tree and then taped lights and ornaments inside. In the 40 years since we have had real and artificial trees, but that one will always stand out.

 

[mckenney99]

I also grew up with one of the silver aluminum Christmas trees and of course it wasn't complete without the light with the revolving 4 color disc the light shown through. I remember the outer ends of the "limbs" were just cut off twisted wire and SHARP, (definitely an impalement hazard). No way could you get by with that today. I don't think mom and dad replaced that old tree until the early to mid 70's.

 

[Rudi]

Until I no longer can do it, I will stick with a fresh cut local tree. A 6ft. Nordman Fir. There is a great tree farm about 5 miles from me.

 

[charlie sherrill]

I have learned that if you don't put one up you don't have to take it down.

 

[Krogen]

I also grew up with one of the silver aluminum Christmas trees and of course it wasn't complete without the light with the revolving 4 color disc the light shown through. I remember the outer ends of the "limbs" were just cut off twisted wire and SHARP, (definitely an impalement hazard). No way could you get by with that today. I don't think mom and dad replaced that old tree until the early to mid 70's.

We had one of those for a few years when I was a kid. Just like you, we had the color wheel too. It was kind of cool, but the real memory is walking across the carpet and zapping the bejeebers out of myself with static electricity. That thing would BITE!

 

[Chubbo]

Live Christmas Tree

This post is late, but I just discovered the thread.

I can look out the picture window of our living room, and see the first Christmas tree that we had in this, our new home, in 1956. It is a live, long needled pine tree that I dug, and displayed in a washtub, in front of that same picture window. I planted it, about, 20' out in front of our front bedroom window, in the front lawn, after Christmas in 1956. In those 64yrs, it has attained the height of around 30'.

For the last 25yrs, my wife has lived in constant fear that that that tree of 18" diameter, will be snapped off by the wind, and fall on the roof of our front bedroom. She insists that it should be removed, before that happens. My loving wife's favorite hobby is worrying. We bicker over the fate, of the old pine tree, every time that there is a slight breeze.

That, folks, is my "Ooh Christmas Tree!!!" story.

Chubbo

 

[desi2358]

When I was a kid we always had a real tree. Dad usually bought one from either the volunteer Fire Dept or the Lions Club. Loved the smell of the fresh pine but my favorite memory was our one cat. She decided the tree was hers and wouldn't let any of the other cats near it. Kept the rest of them from climbing in it LOL.

When the wife and I started out we just had a little artificial tree. Later went to bigger artificial tree then started buying real ones. Still love the smell of a real tree but the last couple years we have gone back to a little one. I guess I've gotten lazy, I just leave it decorated, store it upstairs with a cover over it. When the Holiday season rolls around I pull it out and set it on one end of the big dining room table! Looks good and no hassle to deal with.

 

[Golddollar]

I can look out the picture window of our living room, and see the first Christmas tree that we had in this, our new home, in 1956. It is a live, long needled pine tree that I dug, and displayed in a washtub, in front of that same picture window. I planted it, about, 20' out in front of our front bedroom window, in the front lawn, after Christmas in 1956. In those 64yrs, it has attained the height of around 30'.

This sounds like at my house. It was my second Christmas in my present house in 2006. I had a Norway Spruce that came in a pot from Lowe's. It stood on my kitchen table for Christmas. I later planted it in the middle of my back yard. It is now as tall as a two story house.