Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches. That’s right folks it is that time of year once again. All though for me it never felt like Christmas until we put up our Christmas tree. In our home it was always the job of the men folk to go out and get the tree, put it in its stand, and tie it to the walls so that the little ones could knock it over. The little ones in this case were my two sisters who were a lot younger than I was. It was also my job to climb behind the tree once it was up and pass around the lights to my mother who was now in charge of decorations. So with the tree in place, safely anchored to the walls because we always put our tree in a corner, and the lights wound around from top to bottom, my job was done. Mom and the girls took over from there.

Mom did most of the garland with the little ones handing her things. Although, both girls were allowed to pick out the Christmas balls and ornaments and put them where they could reach; of course one of us bigger people would lift them so they could put the decorations just were they wanted them. All that remained was the papier-mâché star on the top of our tree that mom or I put on. I say all that remained for the rest of the family because after cookies and milk all of us kids went to bed, me included. That was when my mother did her magic. She stayed up almost all night putting on the tinsel just so. We always referred to the tinsel as icicles because mom put them on one strand at a time and made our tree look like it was covered with icicles. No matter how goofy I thought the tree looked when I went to bed it always took my breath away when I came down in the morning to the most beautiful, breath taking tree ever. I always thought of our Christmas trees as mom’s special gift to the rest of the family. Thanks Mom.

There were other breath taking trees over the years other than ours. One of them belonged to my high school girlfriend. Her parents always strung their Christmas tree with nothing but blue lights and then covered everything with angle hair. That would be spun fiberglass which at the time no one knew that the hair from balding angles was harmful to us humans. All I knew at the time was that making out on my girlfriends couch, with only the glow of those blue lights through all that angle hair was as romantic as it gets for a teenage boy, or as romantic as I am going to talk about here.

Needless to say over the years I have seen lots and lots of stunning Christmas trees. There were trees reflected in water, scrawny Charlie Brown types of trees, and of course that gargantuan one at Rockefeller Plaza in New York. But the most unique Christmas tree I ever saw was at a store called The Mole Hole in Ft Myers Fl. Walking around doing my Christmas shopping one year I happened by the window of The Mole Hole when to my wandering eyes did appear a giant, upside down, fully decorated, rotating Christmas tree. Never had I seen such a site so I threw open the door and went in for a closer look. I still don’t know how they did it and don’t much care. I was only interested in the wonder of it all. So taken was I that I wound up doing almost all of my Christmas shopping at The Mole Hole that year; all because of that giant, upside down, fully decorated, rotating Christmas tree.

So take a moment and think about what starts Christmas for you? What was your favorite Christmas memory? Christmas trees aside, I know what my bestest Christmas memory is. That would be the memories I am going to make this year with my wife, dog, cat, and our little, sit on the table, artificial Christmas tree that Sharon and I both love so much. MARRY CHRITMAS EVERYONE.