A tree for Christmas

I wrote this Christmas, but didn’t post it.

     We put up our tree today, but it isn’t complete as we have the ornaments waiting to be hung. It is one of those faux trees we bought. I can’t explain why we bought it after sixty two years of live trees, but it is a fake tree. It looks okay, but lacks character. I remember the years when we were very young and we would wait until almost the last minute so we could get our trees for fifty cents. They were always live trees and Barbara and I would lovingly adorn them with our ornaments. I remember once, maybe the last time we bought a live tree. I was trying to get a tree and the fellow told me he would rather burn it than sell it to me for fifty cents. However, he sold it to me anyway and for fifty cents.

      After that my sister Nancy had a Christmas Tree farm and she would let us cut one. Eric and Alice would go with me to pick the tree and it was always fun to do. The last one we got was from the top of one of her trees. It was okay, but nothing special and it reminded me of my youthful folly and made me feel bad to damage the tree. It did grow another top later, but it wasn’t the same. I cut the top off a tree and carried it down to my grandparents house to bring home to Lynwood. My parents were very upset with me that I would cut the top off of a tree and of course I was upset myself. I have always hated the memory of that tree and the poor tree was not to blame. They made me put it up unadorned, but I was very ashamed And really hated it. I suppose the good thing is that it did teach me something important.

     Another Christmas my father was sick and we couldn’t afford a tree as in those days they didn’t pay for sick leave. The PTA had a tree at the Junior High School for the students and on Christmas Eve they brought it to our house with lights and ornaments on it. I think it was one of the nicest trees we ever had. I don’t remember anything else about that Christmas,  but it has always been special for me, because my father survived a devastating heart attack.