"O Christmas tree, o Christmas tree
How lovely are thy branches"
I've done it all.... gone to the gas station corner lot and bought a tree, gone to a Christmas Tree Farm and trudged the rows and hills to find the 'perfect' tree, snowshoed on my own land in the quiet of a snowy afternoon, cut two small trees and lashed them together to make a suitable representation of a tree, purchased a Forest Service tree tag and gone onto National Forest, and even built my favorite of all time trees out of saplings and grapevine.
The bottom line for me is that a tree is important. Through the years a story unfolded of the many phases of my life as told through Christmas trees. I remember little of my early Christmas trees, but I do recall going down to a corner lot on Chandler Street in Worcester, MA to select and buy a tree at a defunct gas station. They were stacked 3 and 4 deep and the attendant would patiently pull out one and then another for our critical eye to judge. I am certain it was never the first we selected; such an emotional decision took time!
Putting up a tree is a cherished holiday ritual for me. When the Liston-Bock clan merged into one family a new tradition was born. Now there we two trees. Mom had oodles of antique ornaments, so she had the traditional tree in the front entry. It was lit with bubble lights and REAL candles. There were both glass and metal 'icicles' and masses of glass ornaments. That was the adult tree and a total 'look, but do not touch', for the 6 of us. We had to be invited into that space,
Six kids with six ideas of what looks perfect. We were allowed a few less expensive antique ornaments on our tree as well as family treasures. I honestly do not remember much except that we merged two families ornaments and styles. Ron had very determined ideas of how tinsel was distributed on the tree. We would get one of those boxes covered in cellophane encasing a 1000 stands of spaghetti sized tin foil strands. Nan wonders, "do they even make that stuff any more?" Ron would put one stand at a time on the tree, being careful they dangled evenly. The rest of us were prone to throwing a fist full at one time, making Ron retrieve it, separate it and gently lay one piece at a time on a branch.
I was 20 when I got my very first Christmas tree and it was a sight! It was a Charlie Brown tree cut down in the forest. I had no decorations and could afford little. I went to K-Mart and bought some paint by number balsa wood ornaments and got to work. That and a string of lights began my next generation of homemade ornaments. Until this year I have aways put one of those balsa wood ornaments on my tree to remember my history and the reason for the season.
Through the years, my tradition was to have ornaments that were hand-made and had meaning. Always white tiny lights and the special angel that my sister-in-law Jane made. As we need to keep our house accessible for Russ mobility, we have been putting our tree up on the porch, but each year I always find a place for my angel, a Christmas favorite.
I am surprised how few (any) photos we have of Christmas Trees of our past. I may have some on flash drive storage, but none I could find. My favorite tree of all time was the masterpiece of Russ, creativity and just wanting a personal statement. I have never been one for glitz, so basic and country was perfect. Russ took 6 birch saplings and built a tee pee, lashing them at the top. We cut long strands of grapevine and wrapped the frame... There are wonderful curls of vine giving fabulous dimension. Tiny white lights was all that was needed, but I would go all around putting on special ornaments. The cool part of this tree is you could be absolutely anywhere and see all the ornaments on all sides as well as the ones in the middle. This is the base, easily stored year to year in the loft.