Making Christmas Tree Memories
Mom was responsible for decorating our Christmas tree when I was a child. It was filled with C7 multi-colored lights and covered with homemade ornaments. Sparkly balls and vintage metal-like glass bulbs added to the festive look.
But I was often involved in making the ornaments. One year we strung popcorn on string. (We used several days-old, stale popcorn. Otherwise, the needle popcorn will fall apart when you try to push the needle through.) We used the same completed string for several years. It got thrown out when It finally began to fall apart. It probably should have been thrown out much sooner–it began to look like buttered popcorn over time (but it had no butter on it).
One year, Michelle and I painted wooden, punch-out ornaments. Kind of like a coloring book picture traced onto thin wood.
Another year, we assembled woodland scene ornaments. We again punched out wood pieces and this time painted them brown. Then we glued sparkly snow to the flat round base and carefully placed a fluffy green pine tree and a tiny plastic deer on the snow.
Grandma Is and I made another batch of ornaments at the ceramics studio where she enjoyed creating fancy cups and decorative doodads. I painted my greenware carefully and proudly wrote my name and the year ’76 on the back of each one.
That was pretty much the end of my creative ornament streak.
My next decorating memory comes from college. Coming home for winter break, I was stressed. The booze drink I made myself seemed to take care of that problem quickly though. It also added to my enjoyment of handing mom the Christmas ornaments form their boxes to add to the tree. This was especially evident by my hyper-hysterical laughter when I hit Mom in the head with a duck ornament and repeated, “Duck mom, duck” several times.
Then there is a huge gap of unique decorating memories. But many details continue–real trees (check), ornaments, lights, and garland (check), and angel on top (check).
The memories started up again when my kids came along. It was a family affair for several years after we got the boys. Each son got to sit on Dad’s shoulders to place ornaments up high. My favorite year, however, was the one when I had the boys put most of the ornaments on themselves. They were around 5 or 6 and thickly covered the tree’s bottom half. I was the only one who put ornaments on the upper branches. The overall look was…priceless.
Our Christmas tree is still festive. Just like when I was a child, I currently don’t decorate the tree. Now it’s not my mom, but my son, Kadon who puts on the lights, red garland, and ornaments. This year, I accidentally bought “twinkle” lights. When Kadon added them to our existing white lights, the effect was just a little twinkling throughout the tree.
I picked up a box of tinsel–only 98 cents! It was something different. I had heard of people using it, but I had never tried it. We all participated in adding one single strand at a time to the tree. We tossed it in the air and blew it into place.
I love the additional gossamer glitteriness. Kind of like magical spiders spun silvery webs on the tips of the branches. It also matches with our new silvery, glittery star at the tippy top.
It feels good that our Christmas tree decorating continues to adapt and change with the years…
…new memories are still being made.
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