The Tree of History

My folks have more traditional ornaments than we do.

Since about 1972, they've always gotten a twelve to fourteen foot tall tree.  It used to be a tree that we'd cut down from a local tree farm.  One year, we didn't measure correctly, and after we got the tree up we realized that it was too tall and my Dad fired up a chainsaw inside the house and trimmed the trunk.  Another year, Mark got an infinite number of Good Boyfriend Points by throwing himself between a falling tree and my Dad's piano.

About about twelve years ago, they got an artificial tree.  Don't ask me where.  The thing is huge, and comes in five parts.  Only recently have to bottom two parts--the heaviest--been separated from each other after fusing together about nine years ago.  My folks are getting to the point where it's becoming more of a pain to set up than it's worth and this year the talk about trashing it and replacing it with a more manageable tree was louder.   (The tree has to be cinched into its storage boxes with multiple ropes, and it takes at least three people to haul the boxes out of the garage and upstairs to the parlor.)

I think they might get more Holiday Milage by setting up cones of chickenwire as a frame for fir boughs and pinecones.  They used to do that in the eighties, complete with wrapping the little crafty-trees with gold-colored glass bead chains.  One tree would be the cat ornament tree, another the music tree, and another a Santa tree.

For a while, we'd get ornaments as stocking stuffers for each other; so there'd be a set of banners, or musical instruments, or insects, or whatever.  This stopped happening when my Sister and I stopped spending the night December 24 and also when we realized the ornaments were piling up.

In the seventies, we developed a system for decorating the tree:  Stars, angels and birds went on the top branches.  Snowflakes went under the top tier, as did flower fairies.  Santas and snowmen were middle of the tree.  Mice, elves, and figures without strings should go into any "caves" in the tree.  Plastic, fabric, wooden, or crafted-ornaments made out of greeting cards and canning jar rims were "pet and child proof," so they went along the bottom of the tree.  Glass globes and plastic icicles went all over the tree.  Various ornaments were assigned to individuals as "theirs," which meant that it was sacrilegious for anyone else to hang them.  The idea is to remember the story behind each ornament:  "This is the mouse we got in 1973," "This is the bell for John and the goose girl for Julie that Aunt Margot gave."

Decorating The Tree was a big deal -- maybe less so now that my folks don't have the same stamina for five-hours-of -decorating (with holiday snacks).  Also climbing on top of eight-foot tall cabinetry now that I'm in my mid-fifteies doesn't have the same appeal as it did when I was in my teens.  And we need to do a better job of pulling our spouses into the family narrative (this year was extra haphazard).

Nowadays, I like to photograph various ornaments.  I suppose I should be more routine about it, because I'm pretty sure I have photographed the Twelve Days of Christmas ornaments multiple times.