GARLANDS AND GARLANDS AND MORE STUFF

Old Trunks never did decorate a tree with popcorn and cranberries. Have you?

Our home tree never had paper cut in strips of red and green and pasted together loop by loop to form a chain, did yours? In grade school, the paper chains were draped everywhere. It was like a race to see just how many miles of chain one could make with paper, scissors, and glue.

When I was very little, we had a few glass balls which I remember so very well. Each of them was a pastel base color with a snow message attached. I loved to look into them. Looking at them and into them, as if I could see Christmas from the image.

It was the Christmas of 1952 when the last of the beautiful balls was broken. How, you ask. We were living in the 900 block of Arnold Avenue North. There was a huge picture window, which to preserve the heat, was covered with a thermo lined drapery, which was drawn at night. We had gotten a television that fall and that took the best place to put a tree. SO, we didn't have a tree, instead, a plan was in place to section off the picture window with hockey tape, (black stick to itself like tape used to tape hockey sticks on the part used to move the puck).

The edges of the window would be sprayed with canned snow, the perimeter of the window would have outside lights, (outside, of course), and from each of the pretend panes an ornament would hang with the use of another type of tape. In its glory, it was right out of the Victorian era.

And then............the draperies were drawn..AND then..............the window got cold and THEN the tape holding the balls let go.................and then, they fell, one by one and all the beautiful ornaments I had gazed into were broken.

And mother replaced them with plastic balls, and they fell off and BOUNCED.

And then, we gave up on the tape and put them directly into the hockey tape. Because the balls were so heavy, they pulled the tape to make it ~~~~~~~~~~~ wavy. Since it all looked like crap already, I learned that writing in the spray snow was fun. It was the end of the window decor. The next year we would have a tree with outside lights on it, ugly green balls and lots of tinsel....but that is a another story for another day.

Thanks to Shirley, the tree we had when we had children, had an ornament for each year. Shirley came to see us when Rachel was just a couple of months old and brought along a mini stocking which was hung on the tree and probably is hung on the adult tree of Rachel's now.

That started, and continues to be a tradition. Each year, although the three of them are grown and gone, an ornament is made or bought and sent. Tom and I started ornaments for the two of us, as well. This year, we needed ten ornaments for those we gift ornaments. For Tom and I, we start with the ornament from 1998 and work forward, hanging this year's bangle on last.

To me, it seems like a tree is a must have, for many, the concept has gone away.

I am thinking about someone I know that recently had a death in the family. They are not putting up a tree this year. From what I know of the person who deceased, I am certain he would reach down and pop them. Yet, they think it is out of respect to him not to have a tree.

What's you call on that?

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