That is Fabgrandpa’s Mom and Dad in 1965, looking all sweet and cuddly in front of their Christmas tree. When I think back over the years about Christmas trees, the earliest one I can remember was the aluminum tree that my Mother had back in the early 1960’s. I don’t have a picture of hers, but I found this one in the internet and it looks a lot like the one we had:
I can’t remember if it had any ornaments on it or not, but it did have that light circle that spun slowly around, changing the color of the tree as it did. After we moved to a new house in 1965, Mama got a live tree and put it up after dinner on Thanksgiving day. It had what seemed like millions of Christmas light sets, etc on it. I know there were ornaments that she had been saving year after year, even some she had been given from her mother.
Mama’s Christmas trees in her new house seemed to fill up the living room. They were huge, and because there were six kids in our family, it also seemed like there were a million gifts under the tree.
When I got married and started putting up my own Christmas trees, we usually went out in the woods and cut one down. This one from 1972 was a cedar tree. The weight of the ornaments and lights on the flimsy limbs made them droop, and the ornaments fell off often. That didn’t matter to my son, though. He loved it.
I found this photo of Fabgrandpa and my step-daughter, Becky, in 1980, sitting in front of a Christmas tree. I don’t know if it was it at his home or somewhere else, but it was a nice full tree. Becky looked so happy with her Christmas baby doll.
This photo of my children in front of the Christmas tree in 1983 shows the first artificial Christmas tree we had. We put the Christmas tree up the day of Thanksgiving, and she had an asthma attack that night. The first thing the doctor asked me at the hospital was “do you have a live Christmas tree?” He told me to go home and take it down. We did, but put up the artificial one the next week.
My sister Linda always has a big live Christmas tree at her home. This is my niece, Stefanie, in 1987. I have always loved this photo of her. She was so happy with her new pink jacket.
Poor Santa! This was me and my oldest daughter, Becca, with the Wal-Mart Santa Claus in 1990. What a sad looking Christmas tree that was!
After Emily moved out of the house, I had a live Christmas tree again in 1994. This one was a leyland cypress tree, that we planted in the back yard after Christmas was over. That tree grew to over sixty feet tall, but it looked like a Charlie Brown tree when it was in the house.
We haven’t had a Christmas tree in our house for about 14 years now, but I think I am going to put out my ceramic tree that my sister made for me years ago, and light it up this year. I can move a little table over by the window in the living room, and plug it up. I may also get some Christmas light sets to go around the windows, too. That would be fun, I think, and and nearly as much work as a real Christmas tree would be.
When does your family put up their Christmas tree? Is it a live tree, or an artificial one? How many sets of lights do you put on it?
OMG I remember those aluminum trees! We had one when I was “little and living in PA” that was in the basement/rec room where Santa always left our gifts. We also had a regular tree upstairs in the living room for when Santa came to bring us 1 gift and then tell us to go downstairs and see what else we received for being so good.
I put mine up after Thanksgiving. I’d put it up earlier if Ken would let me! I did put lights on the house this past week, though, because we actually had a warm day and I knew it might be the warmest we’d have before Christmas.
We always put ours out the day after Thanksgiving. I usually do Black Friday shopping until dawn, then go home and sleep for a few hours. Later that day, we go buy a real fraiser fir tree. Every single year Daniel and I end up arguing about who is going to go back out and buy more lights because half of ours from the year before won’t work. Maybe some day we will learn to plug them in and check before we buy the tree! I love the smell of the real trees! With two kids, 3 dogs, and a cat, it can be quite challenging, because the dogs like to drink the water from it and the cat bats all the ornaments of the bottom half! Lol! I couldn’t imagine not having a real one though.
I love that picture of Nana and Poppa! They look so young and happy! It made me excited for Christmas!
What is a ceramic tree? I don’t think I have ever see one of those.
Growing up, the Christmas tree went up on Christmas Eve and us kids stayed up late to help decorate it with gobs of ornaments that each had a story. I think Mom & Dad hoped we sleep in the next morning. But no way, because miraculously there would be presents under that tree.
Love all the photos you have to share your story.
Thanks for sharing your memories. We usually put our up around the beginning of December. This year will be a green artificial tree, Not sure if I am going to like it, we always cut ours down at a local tree farm. Seems every year I have to go and buy a 1 to 3 sets of lights for the tree, I get a little frustrated when I can’t find the light that doesn’t work. The tree is decorated with 30 years of homemade ornaments that the kids made in school, vacation bible school, or scouts. Brings back a lot of memories when we hang them each year.
We put up an artificial tree. We put our tee up the weekend after Halloween most years. Our tee is already up and decorated. We have 4 or 5 sets of lights on our tree. I love putting the tree up early so we can enjoy it longer. It’s a lot of work, so why not enjoy it.
Great memories! This will be the first year we will not put up a tree. Although I do like the idea of a ceramic tree. How long does one store all those decorations collected through the years? Time to donate. Merry Christmas.