a youngster, deb. I was born at age 43. True story!

I still remember the color coded limbs

took it to school one year and by that time the paint was hard to see. We had one heck of a tree with long branches on to top and an assortment of different sized branches all around. The kids put it together and so I left it be as they liked it.

...our thrilling christmas tradition.

with the root ball and dirt.

Day after Christmas we would plant the tree along the long circular drive to our house.

Last time I was there there were some 30 large scotch pine trees along the now stately driveway to the new house that was built after my mother sold the place.

then my mom found a deal on an artificial green one and it sufficed until I was out of the house and married.

set up ,

Anyway, my mom had a Kirby and that thing would eat anything that got under it.

Too sad seeing a beautiful green tree 🌲 on the curb waiting for the trash truck.

Polly Hennessey.

My sister finds the biggest live tree that will fit in her house..we were traumatized!

ornaments. Your sister is lucky to be able to have such a large tree.

And there would have been a major mutiny if anyone had so much as suggested an artificial tree. It was a big production. My dad hated unbalanced trees so he'd cut off branches that were in the "wrong" place, drill a hole in the trunk and splice them into another place that made the tree more symmetrical. Then we'd haul out the boxes of ornaments and make another big deal about decorating it properly. For awhile we had that old-fashioned tinsel that was made of lead so it draped nicely, until it was banned because it was made of lead. We also had some of those lights that looked like candles and bubbled when they warmed up. When I was a little kid I thought the Christmas tree was the coolest thing in the world.

knew back then, It kind of looks like mylar now. The only thing I disliked was the angel hair. that was made of spun glass. Do you have any of those old glass ornaments. They were so beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

I guess call them "chubby spindels"? They had a point on both ends, and one side had a deep circular bowl-like indentation, with a sort of "ribbing" going towards the center/"bottom" of the "bowl". Different color on that part. The spindel part was light colored, or white, and the "bowl" was colorful. Although it's possible that the spindle was colored on the bottom half, and white/light colored on the top half.

It's possible my sister may still have 1 or two. 🤔

ETA:
Having just looked up glass Xmas ornaments....
The term "tear drop" seems to apply to both long, thinnish ones, and my "chubby" ones.

But we never had one of those light spinners for it!

ornaments. especially blue.

Somehow we always managed to get one with a crooked trunk so that when my Dad brought it in the house and put it in the stand, it leaned to one side,so he’d either have to take it back outside and cut some more off the bottom or try to clamp it down in the tree stand at an angle. For some reason my mother insisted the tree stand had to sit atop an old washtub that we covered with a white sheet. Much debating, arguing, etc. about whether or not the tree was straight in the stand and rotated properly to hide any bare spots. Every year we got to hear my Dad cuss and swear, lying on the living room floor halfway under the tree, while my mother gave directions. “Turn it towards the window. No, it’s still,crooked. That side has a bare spot and has to go against the wall,”. etc. finally after my sister and I heard a whole bunch of new swear words, the tree was ready for the lights, which was another pain in the ass because if one light went out, the whole string went out on those old light strings. Much searching for the box of spare bulbs that no one remembered where they put. Finally the tree was up, and the lights were on and properly working. My Grandma always supervised the decoration and the tinsel distribution. Then finally the little ceramic house village was set up on the white sheet under the tree that was supposed to simulate snow. Each ceramic house had a hole in the back where you stuck in a bulb from yet another string of lights. Once it was all done and we turned on the lights in the evening, with the tree lights, the tinsel, and the lighted houses in the “snow” village underneath, it was the most beautiful sight in the world to me as a child.

Dad doing plastic surgery on an imperfect tree (they all were) and cussing about it, turning the bare spot to the wall, lights that didn't light and looking for the ones that did, trying to get the star or the angel on the top, arguing about which ornaments went where, complaining that there were too many red ones here and not enough there, the big ones go on the lower branches but not on the lowest ones because of the cat, don't let the cat drink the water, where's the tree skirt?

Good times, good times.

Except for the cat since my mother would not allow us to have a pet. I forgot about the star! That was another aggravation, getting the darn thing to sit up straight and not flop over. Can you believe we used to use that awful tinsel made out of lead? Everyone put it on their Christmas trees back then. I wonder how many pets and small children got sick from ingesting or chewing on it.

all its glory.

assembled from color-coded hook-in wire branches on a 2-stage wooden "trunk"

it stood about 6 feet tall

years went by the paint came off and you didn't know which branch went where.

Like you'd see in the holiday movie, "A Christmas Story".
We also used the old style large light bulbs on the tree, and had a blue lite star at the top for at least 20 years.
Some of the decorations were antique bulbs that were handed down from my parents families.
This was the tree I remembered throughout the 50's and 60's.
It was as traditional as a tree could be.

you for sharing,

She was kind of a poop, too, cuz the first thing she'd do on the morning after Christmas was take down the tree. Everyone else had holiday lights on New Years Eve but not us, so when I got older I'd always go to a friends house. New Years is part of the whole season & you don't take your tree down until then. Yet here I am years later, & I don't even put one up.

Hope you had a good day yesterday, Deb!

up until Three Kings day in January.

We all hated it, but he loved it. It was like a joke to us.

Then parents reverted to real trees, then artificial ones later in life.

Now it is just a table top tree.

I don't even bother with a tree anymore, haven't for many years.

Enjoy!

The Fake ones (if you spend $$$$$$) are very realistic now, so I get it if you are putting up a really tall one, multiple ones, or just have no ability to cut one down (that is a ready option for many in Colorado) or spend a ridiculous amount at a tree lot. But, I'd still buy real garland or something to bring in that irreplaceable smell. For me, it is not Christmas without it.

In my teens, my parents moved to a fake tree.

In LA, when we were first married, in our little apartment, my wife and I had small potted live trees, but always had difficulty finding a place to plant them when Christmas was over.

All during my sons' infancy, childhood, adolescence and teen years, we had real cut trees.

This year, as we now have property in which we can plant trees, and have the pleasure of being empty nesters with our sons doing well in their own digs, we bought a small live tree, that we'll plant after the holiday.

(We have a rather wild kitten, who we couldn't really trust with a large tree.)

In two days it will be our 40th wedding anniversary. It is nice to reflect with the woman I have loved so much, and continue to love, those early years together in our little apartment, Christmas with just each other.

Just when I think I couldn't possibly love her more, I do.

What a sweet thing to say. Mrs. NNadir is a lucky woman.

private forest preserve, hiked in, cut a nice 8' one down. Tied it to the top of the jeep and
brought it home to my parent's house on top of a mountain.

That year we had a table tree. When I was in my mid teens we switched to a fake (green) tree.

Christmas was the one time of year that my home was happy-well sort of. Now a Table Tree is fine and I don't go overboard.

For a few years we had live trees, planted in the yard after the holidays. When we kids got old enough, we went up into the mountains and cut our trees. My brother was tasked with helping Dad put the lights on the tree; my job, thanks to my allergy to the trees, was to hand the ornaments to Mom. These days I have an artificial tree that I can handle without having to slather myself in calamine lotion. I even splurged on a pre-lit one; unfortunately, those lights go out, so my next tree won't be pre-lit. As for ornaments, my favorites are the ones from parents' first tree from 1943; they're simple glass balls with the original paper hangers (everything metal went to the war effort). Thanks to my aging shoulders that don't like to reach up, I've had to downgrade from a 7' tree to a 4' tree. But I still enjoy it, along with my old vinyl Christmas albums. The tree is artificial, but the sentiment and memories are very real.

Merry merry!


.

Went to various tree sellers in our neighborhood in Washington Heights. Although there was one year I don't remember why we ended up going to? the Upper West Side. So there we (dad, sis, and me) were on the subway taking our tree home. 😄

We had for a fairly long time ? 6- 7 footers, later eventually closer to 5 - 6 footers. For the tallest we atrachted string, or ?wire stabilizers to the wall.

We'd check, and get straight ones, and turn them around at the tree lot to check for bald spots. If there was something like that; as long as it was one area, tht was ok. It got put in the back. Occasionally we'd clip a bit of very dense sections out at home. Always make two cuts near the base before putting it in the stand.

I don't remember whether we had the lead tinsel waaaay back - but it's possible, because when we switched; I think I remember it feeling different maaaaybe lighter as we hung it one year.
We had these textured (sort of like ?frost) colored glass ball lights. And later your typical lights.

Then, all the ornaments! Many different glasses ones. The "chubby spindles" or fat tear drops ones. More slender spindles. Some other shaped ones. Round ones with stenciled glitrery white snowflakes. A few striped ones. Bamboo double triangles. Some metal ones; a sled, and something else. A yarn covered snowman. Glow in the dark ice cicles, although I don't think we exposed them to enough sun light to really work. We had a wonderful selection! Oh, and our older cousin sent me snd my sister gold plated "JOY" ornaments later on.. The letters stacked on top with ?holly leaves, and berries around the "O", and the "Y".

My mom from a crafts section in a women's magazine made clothes pins Santa, and angels. She made wall decorations, too! Cloth covered shapes like ornaments glued on ric-rack, spangles, etc. I still have 2, and my sis has one.

Thanks for encouraging the memories, deb!

We had real trees.

Wikipedia:
Tallinn (Estonia) is the oldest capital city in Northern Europe and has one of the best preserved medieval town centres in the world. The first Christmas tree at Tallinn’s Town Hall Square was erected in 1441 by the Brotherhood of Blackheads; this was the first public Christmas Tree ever put on display in Europe.

We bought a live tree every year when I was a kid. We'd put the old style of incandescent lights on it. The lights would burn hot so anytime you came within 3 feet of it you'd feel the heat. The heat also caused the tree's scent to become more pronounced. Our cat loved to sleep under the tree because of the warmth the lights gave.

After I left home and only my two younger brothers were in their teens did my parents go with an artificial tree.

Mom learned they had made an artificial tree that was fire resistant. From then on, we had artificial ones. Mom would test them by borrowing Dad's Zippo and holding the flame to the end of a branch to make sure it Didn't catch fire, just melt a little. Fortunately, they all passed muster, so Mom never got charged with arson!
I grew up with interesting people.

child.

and all new ornaments.

The next day, my three youngest brothers got into the dumpster and recovered the old decorations, redecorated the new tree. My mother didn't notice it for hours.

After then, the deal was to alternate years. My brother now has the old decorations, including ones I remember getting close to seventy years ago.

Mom was particular about how it was decorated so I only pretended to help decorate the thing.


The last real tree I encountered gave me a migraine from hell and to decorate the thing I had to wear a mask. It was a client that I was care giving for and she had Parkinson's. None of the other caregivers would help her decorate it so I did it for her so she had a beautiful Christmas tree when her family came to visit her.


I couldn't put any type of tree up for the longest time because of a certain feline companion that liked to chew on the branches on trees and it made our feline companion sick. I finally got a artificial tree in 2023.


Our place is small and so I have a "skinny" or "pencil" artificial tree. Trying to find a certain height unlit pencil tree was a bit of a challenge but I managed.

angel. Had a pencil tree at one time too. but the cats kept knocking it over. Switchec to table top tree.

I have a fake one now. Bought it about six years ago and have never taken it out of the box. Where's the fire? Yikes! I shudder to think what it looks like now!

The fake trees now look so lifelike. I do like the smell of the real tree, though. The Douglas fir is my favorite. My cats used to like to rip open the tree skirt and drink the nasty Christmas tree water. Fresh clean water in their bowl twice a day and they preferred that dirty water. Go figure.

Who knows what goes on in the mind of a cat?!

Big as possible. It went up just after Thanksgiving and stayed up ’til New Year’s. That’s as long as it lasted as it was always near the fireplace, which got a lot of use during Iowa winters. I think I had one friend whose family opted for that silver tree with the lights, and I was mortified at the unnaturalness of the whole thing.

Later on: My ex’s bday was March 30. He insisted ALL the Xmas decorations had to stay up until after that day. Yes, FOUR MONTHS! One year, my mum came down to FL for Xmas and suggested one day we could be productive and pack everything up for the new year. He came home after work and threw a tantrum.

Just one of the many reasons I should’ve jettisoned him early on. All that tinsel and garlands and crap everywhere just got oppressive, and I just grew to despise the holiday. (He’s also the reason I recognized the orange bawbag’s malignant narcissism before anyone else.)

The only tree we’ve had up since was the Charlie Brown tree that my son won at work one year—tiny fake tree with just the one red bulb and Linus’ blue blanket at the bottom. Seemed a fitting symbol for what we’d been subjected to for too long (23 years!) Now, even the kids couldn’t care less about Xmas—and since we’re all poor and don’t need more clutter to move around with, we pretty much skip holidays in general, except for the big family dinner.

red ornament and pale blue blanket. I used to keep it on my desk at school. The kids loved it.

My husband and I got fresh trees for many years. We are now on our second artificial tree, which is a 9 footer. Our family room opens to our second floor, so there's lots of room. I'd personally love a 12 footer, but at 74 and 80, going that high on a ladder might not be the smartest thing to do.

We upgraded a couple of seasons back (maybe more) to one of the ones where the 4 sections connect easily to each other and light up when you connect them - just one cord. Our first one had lots of cords in each section, and was kind of a pain to put together.

Our cats do not climb the tree, however they love to nap under it because of the faint warmth of the lights.

It usually takes me several days to get all the ornaments on it, as I'm rather particular about where they go, so I often move them around many times - can't have 2 of the same color too close together, and if it's an animal ornament, it has to hang so I can see the face. Because it takes so long to get the tree decorated just right, it always stays up until at least mid-January. I like looking at it.

"perfect place" HAHAHAHAHAH

We always had a live Christmas tree; however, my father who was an architect, always found that they needed fine tuning. We put up our tree on December 23rd after it had been temporarily installed in the garage with plumb lines running down from the rafters so that the branches were trimmed to create the ideal cone shape. Bare spots? No problem! My dad would cut branches from the bottom of the tree, drill a hole in the trunk where he wanted to eliminate the bare spot and wood glue the branch into the new location. I grew quite impatient waiting for the glue to dry. After the tree was fully decorated, my father and family members visiting for Christmas would make very potent homemade eggnog. The grand finale of Christmas Eve was when my mother wanted the fully decorated tree moved to a new location. At this point, a volunteer, albeit quite tipsy, work crew would attempt to oblige. I should point out that my mother was a non drinker so I never understood why she made this request year after year. It took many years before I understood that Christmas trees were not meant to be horizontal. I had the best childhood ever.

harvested from aunt/uncle's exurban Conn property, decorated with aunt's sugar cookies!

With four generations of heirloom decorations, each with a story, and most homemade. A couple of new ones were added over the years (tiny carved squirrel, cool angle snipped and shaped out of a tin can, Santa made from pulled felt). Always special in my mind. My Play-Doh snowman from the fifties ultimately melted and was retired.

Back in the day, premium table sized Christmas trees didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

As I got older we got a plastic green one.

Christmas Eve, 1972. For some reason, my parents had put off getting a tree. My Dad rushed out and got a fake tree, probably either the only one left, or the best of a bad lot.

That tree ended up being our Christmas tree for the next twenty years. It was the centerpiece of the happiest Christmases of my life.

My dad would take my sister and me out to pick up a tree; it was always so cold, and we would point to the first tree we saw and say, "THIS ONE!" Just because we wanted to get back into the warm car.

We went to Home Depot and she picked out this pitiful-looking, scrawny tree. I pointed out some fuller, prettier trees but she insisted on that one, saying that it would open up. It never did. A couple of days later, I asked her why that tree and she said it was cold and dark and she just wanted to leave! 🎄

didnt have a fake one untill we moved to norcal . the tree was in a living room where there was a wood stove and that scared mom, so she got a fake one .

the roof on his 1952 Henry J every year.

When the new Aluminum tree came out, dad bought one.