Today is the first day of Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories 2015!
The featured topic is – The Christmas Tree – and the focus is on . . .
What are your memories of your family putting up the Christmas tree? Many of us come from different traditions: some people won’t put up their tree until after Thanksgiving or even on Christmas Eve? Some like live trees and actually go out into the woods to cut their own while others prefer the convenience of an artificial tree.
Putting up the Christmas tree was always a special event in my home during the holidays. Since my Mom loved the way a live tree made our home smell, it was a yearly ritual for my dad to bring home a real pine, or fir-tree, for us to decorate.
I recently called up my mom who is 87 years young, to ask if she knew if dad actually cut down the trees he brought home for us to decorate. She burst out laughing and said rather loudly, “are you kidding?!” As she continued to laugh me right off the phone, it became clear that any fanciful visions I had of dad with an axe in hand looking for the perfect tree to chop down was simply . . . out of the question.
Regardless of how my father came by them, there were live Christmas trees in our home each year by December 16th. Why December 16th? According to dad, keeping a live tree in good condition from December 16 to New Year’s Day was a lot easier than caring for it from Thanksgiving Day through the New Year. Once a Christmas tree starts drying out, they lose their vibrant color and the pine needles become brittle and hurt like crazy if you happen to collide with them as I did daily!
The size of our Christmas trees varied over the years as did the type of trees we had in our home too! During those lean years when money was scarce, our live trees were small and a bit scrawny. Okay, I guess I understand why mom was laughing so hard at my question as I look at the Christmas Tree dad brought home to us in 1959 below (LOL)! But, when life got better for us, our live trees were full, large, and even taller than the Christmas tree photographed in 1982. However, once all the Taylor children were grown and on their own, my parents simply preferred to set up their artificial table-top Christmas tree you see in the 1987 photo and would have their grandson Marcus trim it for them!
(Click the photo to enlarge)
“The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACCM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”
Claiming Kin Genealogy 
I enjoyed this story! We always had a live tree. When we were grown, my parents did get a artificial tree. I’m thinking we should do that here now.
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@kriswms2 – Thank you so much for stopping by and for sharing your Christmas Tree memories with me. I’ve been an empty-nester for many years now and this year I picked up the cutest stainless-steel tree for my own quaint apartment this year! Again, thank you!!!
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Enjoyed your story! We had a real tree until I was about 7 or 8. Artificial trees were available and both of my parents were tired of the extra work of a real tree. My mom suffered with arthritis and my dad was an older man. Decorating with my parents was one of my most favorite things. I still have some of the old glass ornaments from my mom’s collection. Both of my parents are gone now, but seeing those ornaments every Christmas makes it like they are there with me.
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@NancyHVest:disqus – thanks so much for stopping by and sharing with me on this 1st day of ACCM 2015!
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