Another Generational Shift – Christmas Tree Edition
Life is all about cycles. We are born, we age, and we eventually die. All of those cycles have their own rhythms. Families are formed, they grow, then divide to form new ones, and each of those stages brings both the beginnings to and ends of certain traditions. Also, things that are important to us in one phase of life can sometimes recede in our priorities as we age. I have reached one such milestone in my own life. And it involves a very unusual Christmas tree.
When my parents separated in the fall of 1966, my mother tried to keep our holiday traditions going. We had always had real Christmas trees, and Mom went and bought one. The problem was that without Dad in the house (and with two kids of an age to be far more hindrance than help) she had to enlist the help of one of the neighbors to put it up. Mom was always a self-reliant girl, and I am sure this bothered her. She fixed that situation the following year when she bought an artificial Christmas tree.
That tree was not inexpensive at the time, a full eight feet tall, and fairly full-bodied. It was easy for her to set up, with just two center pole sections and eleventy-six individual branches that were each stuck into one of the holes in the “trunk”. There were twelve rows of branches, each painted a certain color on the end.
It was a pretty standard tree for its time, except for one thing: that it remains in regular front-line service for our family’s holiday decorating. Several years ago I wrote to acknowledge the tree’s 50th year of service. And that piece linked to an earlier thing I wrote elsewhere which provided a more in-depth history. You know your artificial Christmas tree is old when it was manufactured in New York.
I remember quite well the year my mother offered me the tree. It was 1987, and I had purchased my first home that year. Mom knew I would need a Christmas tree, but more than that, she had reached the point where she was ready to move on after 20 years with the same tree. I had grown up with the drill – to haul all of the branches into the house from the big box in the garage, to sort them into their tip color/size, to assemble the thing, and then to do the decorating. In my late 20’s, that process had a very high fun-to-effort ratio. Now that I am in my mid 60’s, I have reached the same place where Mom was back then, and the effort has begun to outweigh the fun.
Now the torch has been formally passed, and a son and his new wife have taken possession of the old tree, and they eagerly anticipate its use in their new home. Actually, I think all of us eagerly await their continued use of this thing that has become less of an object and more of a family tradition.
If my math is right (which is always an open question), our old tree has been here for 56 Christmas seasons, and this will make its 57th. There was but a single year when it stayed in its box, and that was the last year in our old house when some new dining room furniture took up enough room that the big old tree would no longer fit. Moving to a larger house fixed that. The final (so far) breakdown is that Mom had it for the first 20 years and I have had it for almost twice that time.
I suppose it is possible that the tree’s new stewards are starting on a stretch that will take the old thing to a century, but I don’t wish to put that kind of burden on them. My wish is that they enjoy it for as long as they want to, and that they will eventually make a decision on what to do with it from there. I have not, by the way, let go of my trove of mid-century ornaments that have been this tree’s constant companions. Some traditions take longer to pass down.
So what are we doing for a Christmas tree this year? I know, most everyone likes a real, fresh-cut fir tree, but I am past the time when the lovely fragrance outweighs the hassle of hauling it home and cleaning up dry needles afterwards. Let alone the ridiculous amounts that people charge for fresh trees these days. Fortunately, we still have the small (6.5 foot) tree we bought in 1992 as a temporary replacement for “old faithful”. Why yes, I was raised by someone who grew up during the Depression – why do you ask? Anyway, I don’t expect this next new/old tree to have the kind of staying power of the one it replaces, but you never know.
J. P.'s Blog 
Love this story because it’s about keeping those holiday traditions alive. While we were at home, it was a real tree all the way, but after we left, my parents bought a fake three and a half foot tree that fit on a table in the corner of the front room and they were fine with that. After my Dad passed, my Mom didn’t put up a tree at all, just spread the presents around on a table.
As a long time renter, real trees were never allowed most places as a fire hazard, so I had a fake tree for a while, but tossed it because of my many moves. Some where along the line, I realized what I loved about decorating was the lights, so I started a Christmas tradition for me, of just stringing lights around the front room, and sitting in the lights with the regular room lights off. Festive!
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I always enjoy hearing about traditions of others – we all find our own ways of doing a holiday. My father continued doing real trees for a few more years, and I will confess that I always love the aroma of a real tree. However, I can never get my mother’s voice out of my head, warning about the danger of a fire from a real tree. I know that those are extremely rare, but when they happen, they are bad!
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Your tree certainly has staying power, perhaps achieving some type of record for artificial trees. A tri-generational tree doesn’t happen very often. Plus it still looks quite good despite the years of being packed and unpacked.
Our tree has been in service since 1999, purchased very much on sale a few days after Christmas in 1998. It is starting to look a bit frayed in places (either from being manufactured somewhere having a Great Wall or from a cat that used to enjoy climbing it) but the deterioration has plateaued. It has also been moved more than intended, having decorated all four of our houses plus an interim rental. In fact the original box gave out long ago and we’ve repurposed some moving boxes for it.
Since you don’t enjoy assembling a tree the way you used to, might I suggest a remedy to that my grandmother employed? She had hit that very same cycle but knew she couldn’t avoid putting up a tree. Thus, she hot-glued all the ornaments to the tree (and likely the branches into the pole) and kept it in an upstairs closet with a bed sheet over it for 364 days, 12 hours every year.
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I absolutely love the idea of your grandmother hauling the tree out of storage for family tradition and stuffing it back in once everyone goes home. That’s hilarious.
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I heard one story that one-ups your grandmother’s idea – a former secretary had a sister who married a doctor. When they built a new house, she insisted on a closet large enough to store a fully-assembled-and-decorated Christmas tree for 11 months of the year. When it was time to decorate, they opened the door and slid the tree out into the room.
You provide one more data point on why I will never own a cat.
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CHRISTMAS TREES, ARTIFICIAL is an entry in “The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste”, along with other 20th century wonders as TRAILER PARKS; POLYESTER; SHAG CARPETING; ELVIS IMPERSONATORS; BREASTS, ENORMOUS; AND CADILLACS. (I’m disputing the last two–it depends on what kind of Cadillac.)
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Haha, I can see it, although I am not sure I am willing to bow to the cultural sensibilities of a couple who met as grad students at Yale and who have seemed to have made a living as “cultural anthropologists” to explain those of us in flyover country to their enlightened friends in the big coastal cities. They were certainly nowhere around when my mother needed help getting a fresh Christmas tree set up.
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Seems to me, not that long ago, aluminum fake Christmas trees were all the rage of the culturally educated. In the late 90’s and early 2000’s, those in the know were up bidding on eBay, those 40’s and 50’s offerings from Wisconsin aluminum manufacturing companies into the stratosphere! I knew a couple of photo/art academics from a well known arts university that ended up publishing a book of trees from their personal collection! Goes to show you something, anyway…
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Yes, that stuff is cyclical! You and I are both old enough to remember those trees being new and trendy, then being hopelessly out of style, and then becoming cool again. I have lost track of the current situation. Now you make me wonder if I shouldn’t try to look for one myself! One would go very nicely with my 1958-vintage living room!
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That may be the first story of endearment I’ve heard about an artificial tree. We carry on the tradition of a live tree my parents started (or continued), only we go to the “lot” instead of the downtown train yard where we’d choose one straight out of a boxcar, still dusted with snow. Admittedly we hesitated this year because of – your words – the “ridiculous amount” we had to pay (which I assume is a supply/demand thing, even though I never expect those prices to return to previous levels). Until the age I’m no longer able to put up a tree, it’ll always be a real one.
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I always liked the idea of a real tree in the abstract, and enjoy visits to homes where they can be found. Maybe I carry too many memories of badly shaped trees my father would bring home, with big bare spots that needed to be turned towards the corner. Maybe he just didn’t spend enough on them.
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We have a tree like that. We bought it about 35 years ago when my wife worked at K-Mart. It was a very expensive display model but we got it at a very low price. We’ve used it almost every year. It’s starting to show wear but it’s still pretty good.
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35? It should just be getting started! 🙂
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Love to hear Christmas Tree memories! Sure made me go back and look at old photos to see when we transitioned from real tree to artificial tree. Looks like it was in 1999 when we moved overseas. The tree we have now was purchased in about 2010. I bought it because the lights didn’t have to be taken off in order to store it!
I would have a hard time buying a real tree. We live on 4 acres of land with about 500 live spruce trees. I fear what they would think of me if I chopped down one of them, or bought a real tree…
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The Lorax would approve! I will confess that if I lived on property with hundreds of live spruce trees, I might have made a different decision, no matter what the trees might have said about me. I have mixed feelings on those pre-lighted artificial trees. I love the idea of the convenience, but fear the day when the lights won’t work and I would be faced with the choice of troubleshooting the lights or buying another tree.
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Troubleshooting the lights became a big issue. So I removed all the strings of lights (big task) and now I use the awesome LED ‘starry’ lights which are simply a wire with embedded tiny bulbs!
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Well that was some longevity on your tree JP. As a kid we had a real tree, then gravitated to the awful silver tree with blue bulbs and a blue spotlight on it. Then a green artificial tree. I’m sorry to say I have not decorated since 2008 – each year I say I will do so, but it is just me, so I don’t go through the bother. With a small house, other things must be moved/stowed away for safekeeping, or at least out of the way, for a month’s time to make room for Christmas things. Next year I plan to haul out at least one tree – we had three small trees, plus one brought home from work where I always had it on my desk.
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At one point at work we had one of those foot tall trees with the fiber optic lighting that change colors. At some point during the Christmas season it stopped working and was going to get tossed. I grabbed it, took it home and figured out what ever the problem with the power supply was. That was roughly 20 years ago and it is currently sitting on top of the desk a couple of feet above my head. 🙂
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I have lots of projects that start like that. And finish like that, too.
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That’s great that you figured it out Dan and look at its longevity! I remember those fiber optic trees – I liked them better than the silver trees. And if I recall, they were soft not bristly?
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There is a little retro-nerd in me that would like a vintage aluminum tree with the color wheel, but I doubt that Marianne would approve – especially at the prices they bring now!
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A friend of mine ordered a vintage aluminum tree as she had one growing up. She said this color wheel had an LED bulb which kept it from getting too hot near the aluminum branches. Did you hear that tinsel is making a comeback? It is considered retro decor. We just reused our tinsel since it wasn’t a real tree, pulled it off and put it in the box it came in.
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Glad to hear your tree is still going strong. I think ours is older, but was definitely not used every year. I’m not sure exactly when my Mom’s aunts bought it, but either the box or the instructions include an address that predates Zip Codes, so I’m assuming late ’50s-early ’60s. We have had it since sometime in the ’80s I think? and always used it as a secondary tree in the front living room window. The bigger family tree was real until about 5 years ago, when my Mom finally gave in and got an artificial one for the family room as well. I like the idea of color coding the branches, ours just has a piece of cardboard for each row with holes to keep those branches together. Every year there are a handful that end up loose and have to be carefully compared with others to sort out the sizes.
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The problem with the color coding is that the paint fades/wears off. “Is this gray or silver?” Marianne gets credit for making laminated cards with the color and row number printed on them, with attached twine to tie each batch together. Disassembly takes longer, but assembly is a breeze.
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