Your childhood Christmas tree! (Thread inspired by Weedygarden and LadyLocust)😊

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Pearl

Pearl

Finder of lost things AND The Boss
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What are your best memories of your childhood tree? I remember Dad had our fake tree stored in the attic. It was the the kind that came in a million pieces, each branch had paint on the metal end. The pole had color coordinating paint spots so you knew where to put the branches. It was quite a project! A lot of fun! We had a Christmas village that I got to set up under the tree. I'd get it just right and the cat would come lay in the middle of it. He never touched the ornaments. When my parents sold the house the new owners wanted the tree. They were a young family and I know those kids must have had fun putting up that tree with their Dad!!
 
I lived in the bush and the only Christmas tree worth having was even further back in the bush and usually on top of a fourty foot tree. So to get that tree, I snow shoed a mile or two, chopped down the tree and removed the top. I than tied a rope to my over sized but perfect tree and drug it home wearing those over sized adult snow shoes. After that, some one might put it up and drape some tinsel on it if we had some from previous years.
 
We always had a areal tree growing up, but my grandparents had a silver one we always wondered at. We couldn't understand why they didn't get a real tree. My other grandparents had a real tree and my mom still has the tinsel that was used - it was removed like an ornament each year - not the thin plastic stuff of later years.
 
We had a real tree. But it was just me and mom, so that meant she'd buy it at a lot and I would have to deal with it. Untie it from the top of the car, bring it in, lights, ornaments, tinsel. Put it all away after Christmas. When I met my husband, it was their tradition at his parent's house to celebrate his dad's bday the weekend after Thanksgiving with trimming their tree. Everyone would decorate it, and that would take the good part of the evening. Then the next day, his mom would take all the decorations off and do it "right". I thought that was cuckoo, but oh well. Our tree now is always a live cut tree, our ornaments are mostly handmade by our kids when they were little, or pretty glass ones given to us over the years. Always have to have tinsel. Couldn't find any a few years back, husband found 10 boxes of it on ebay and we use a box a year.
 
Going and getting it. cutting one down and hauling it back thirty miles was a trip to remember!
We'd always shoot a couple of snakes, catch some minnows in the creek for fishing and have a cook out and or swim.
Hadn't thought of that in years.
 
We always had a real tree too, it was a family affair decorating it. Dad did the lights then everyone else got involved, except for some really old decorations and baubles that were my great grandmother's that only my mom was allowed to touch. Mostly I remember my Dad always picked me up to put a star right on top.
 
We always cut our tree. Dad and I hunted squirrel/deer each fall for miles around. We always knew where one nice tree could be found. Sometimes there'd be one growing here on the farm.

We cut eastern red cedars, which has a wonderful cedar smell but the fronds were soft. Pick out one about 5/6ft tall, not too big but full. Like below, they are cedars but a little taller.

I was surprised the first time bought a tree up north. Some kind of spruce were what the tree lots were selling, had needles hard as rocks. They got in my carpet. I had to wear shoes in my livingrm, those things hurt.

easter red cedar.jpeg
 
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We always had a real tree, and we always put it up on Christmas eve. Remember the big round metal pan with the adjustment ring in the center. It was about the same size as the pan you use the change the oil in your car, but it was green. This one is similar, Seemed like it took forever to get it adjusted so the tree was straight. Held a couple of gallons of water, so the tree would last. Everyone pitched in to decorate. We had a lot of very old handmade ornaments from my Mother's family, and they all had a story. We used to string popcorn and cranberries on sewing thread with a sewing needle as garland. I got jabbed many times doing that. Last thing on the tree was the tinsel which was usually left to my Dad. He had the patience of Job, and would put one strand on at a time.

When all was said and done, we used to listen the Fibber McGee, and Molly's version of Twas the Night Before Christmas on the old 78 RPM records. Then we went to bed, and waited for Santa. Really wonderful childhood memories.

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Other than one year, we always had a fake tree. Dad did get a real one one year. There were needles in everything for a month after Christmas and my parents both said, No more!

On my grandfather's farm, he had planted some kind of pines on a steep slope. The spot where they sat was maybe 150' by 250'. One year my uncles decided they would cut one of those pines for a real, homegrown tree. What they brought back sure wouldn't win any beauty contests, but it was special nonetheless. I have to go back to that pine tangle on Grandpa's farm very soon. The family is selling it on the first of December...
 
We had fake trees where they live now. But I recall the year before we moved there, they were renting a place and the lady next door had a good size field with nice little cedars all over it. She let us pick and cut one. I went with step dad and was probably 6 or 7. Had a great time.
Mother, sis, and I always decorated the tree. Usually first weekend in December.
One of my grandma has a small fake silver tree and only used blue lights on it. I always thought it was so pretty.
 
Bacpacker said:
We had fake trees where they live now. But I recall the year before we moved there, they were renting a place and the lady next door had a good size field with nice little cedars all over it. She let us pick and cut one. I went with step dad and was probably 6 or 7. Had a great time.
Mother, sis, and I always decorated the tree. Usually first weekend in December.
One of my grandma has a small fake silver tree and only used blue lights on it. I always thought it was so pretty.
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When I was a kid one of my friend's parents had a frosted tree with the blue lights. When the house was dark it made a beautiful hazy blue glow...
 
ClemKadiddlehopper said:
I lived in the bush and the only Christmas tree worth having was even further back in the bush and usually on top of a fourty foot tree. So to get that tree, I snow shoed a mile or two, chopped down the tree and removed the top. I than tied a rope to my over sized but perfect tree and drug it home wearing those over sized adult snow shoes. After that, some one might put it up and drape some tinsel on it if we had some from previous years.
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Thank you! Tinsel is what it was called, not icicles.
 
We had Eastern red cedar(Juniperus virginiana) as a child, and Fraser fir for our children's Christmas.
We had people who grew them in N.C.
 
We always bought our tree from the same place. It was called the Y's Men's lot. I believe it was run/owned by a group from the YMCA. My Dad just loved that play on words.
 
Spikedriver said:
Other than one year, we always had a fake tree. Dad did get a real one one year. There were needles in everything for a month after Christmas and my parents both said, No more!

On my grandfather's farm, he had planted some kind of pines on a steep slope. The spot where they sat was maybe 150' by 250'. One year my uncles decided they would cut one of those pines for a real, homegrown tree. What they brought back sure wouldn't win any beauty contests, but it was special nonetheless. I have to go back to that pine tangle on Grandpa's farm very soon. The family is selling it on the first of December...
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Great memory, sorry the farm is for sale!
 
Pearl said:
Great memory, sorry the farm is for sale!
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It's OK. I'm sad to see the land go to auction, but the price of land is good now, probably over a million and up to a mil and a half. The farm income is only around 50k a year and my mom and uncles can use the sale money for the their old age needs. 50k a year doesn't go far when you split it 3 ways, but hundreds of thousands does go far...
 
Can I tell a funny one that isn't even my own story? Good, I knew you'd say yes.
Growing up, there was another family about 1/4 mile down the road that was like our 2nd family. There were 6 kids in that family. Ma E. sent "the kids" (we were middle school and HS & some of theirs out of the house) to go get a tree. They ended up getting a lodge pole pine. If you don't know what those are, they are the tall straight pine trees that are often used for fences. Thing is when you bring them in the house in winter and they get warmed up, they smell like cat pee. They had the tree in the house and set up and started decorating it before she saw so they just dealt with the smell that year 😂
 
Spikedriver said:
It's OK. I'm sad to see the land go to auction, but the price of land is good now, probably over a million and up to a mil and a half. The farm income is only around 50k a year and my mom and uncles can use the sale money for the their old age needs. 50k a year doesn't go far when you split it 3 ways, but hundreds of thousands does go far...
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Good for them, but it's probably bittersweet!
 
Pearl said:
Good for them, but it's probably bittersweet!
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It is. My maternal grandparents bought that farm in 1939 and they sweated, bled, and sacrificed to make it work. My brother is farming the land now, but he's 62 and there's nobody left to take it over when he retires. I guess there's not much point in keeping it any more, when it's worth so much to sell...
 
When my great grandmother sold her house in Brooklyn it was like losing a member of the family. Not nearly the blood, sweat, and tears your family has in the farm, Spikedriver, but four generations of wonderful family memories.

I know you are doing the right thing selling it, but it is still hard.
 
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