One Less Tree To Decorate

By Tom Poland

 

End of an Era; Start of Another 

Back in November I was helping my sisters go through Mon’s things, and that meant a trip into the attic. There, in tolerable November temperatures, I found myself surrounded by Christmases past. Sounds a bit like that old Dickens’s Christmas Carol does it not. But there I was amid wreathes and red velvet boughs all hung on the rafters with care. Come another Christmas they would be useful. That was Mom’s thinking. They won’t see use at her place though. Mom died March 26, and that means a tradition sixty-six years old is over.

I was to bring the old ornaments home and put them in my trash bin since hers was full from all the stuff we threw out. Back here in Columbia I didn’t have the heart to toss them. I’m keeping them. So, as this time of change arrives, I’d like to reflect over the Christmas trees, lights, and ornaments I best recall over the years. First, I have many memories of real trees. I don’t when my parents gave up real trees for fake ones but they did. Maybe Dad calculated that in the long run it would save money and time. Thus came the era of trees with lights built into them; trees you had to section together, and believe me when I tell you it wasn’t easy. One year, Mom used one that rotated. Sacré bleu! Sister Deb and I put it together but it was harder than Chinese arithmetic. Then we’d decorate it with “modern” ornaments and a few vintage ones. (I like icicles but few people seem to use those anymore. They were impossible to get off the tree so we left them on it.)

 

 

I much preferred an Easter red cedar cut from Granddad Poland’s farm. One whiff of the cedar and its needles and resin and you knew Christmas was close at hand. Those cedars usually had a “hole” due to the way they grew. They were like a beautiful woman with a small scar on her face. It made them real. Mom and Dad used to string bubble cane lights onto their limbs. I’d watch as the liquid in them bubbled away. No lights can ever top those. We also used old lights that were small incandescent bulbs, but the produced heat and Mom was constantly making sure the tree had water. Now most Christmas lights are LEDs, light-emitting diodes. They put off little heat at all, and guess what? You don’t have to water a fake tree. I will never be a fan of artificial trees. They don’t smell like Christmas and instead of searching in fields you go to Walmart to get them. What fun is that.

 

 

A real tree always proved to be a challenge when it came to getting it to stand straight in that red-and-green stand with the thumbscrews that held it in place. I remember one Christmas Eve the tree fell onto my Grandmom Walker while she was sitting on the sofa. It was funny and we soon had the tree upright again. When Christmas was over we hauled the tree out into the woods where nature took its course. Now people hold “grinding of the greens” and turn them into sawdust.

 

 

As for where to be Christmas Day, we always gathered at Mom and Dad’s. This year is different. Our family has one less tree to decorate. A dark green tree with white lights won’t grace the home place this year. Until we settle into a new tradition, a new era, if you will, I will spend Christmas this year in Apex, North Carolina with my daughter, Beth, and her family. I was able to spend Thanksgiving with Becky, my younger daughter, and her family and my extended Lincolnton family. With family all spread out it gets harder and harder to get everyone together.

Christmas is just around the corner and as a result this column is short. Who has the time to read or do anything but shop and prepare for our over-commercialized Christmas season?

Merry Christmas to you all and a special Merry Christmas to those of you with real trees and old lights and ornaments like my parents used for many, many years. May the season bring you health and happiness.

 

 

 

Visit Tom Poland’s website at www.tompoland.net
Email Tom about most anything. [email protected]

 

Tom Poland is the author of eleven books and more than 1,000 magazine features. A Southern writer, his work has appeared in magazines throughout the South. The University of South Carolina Press has released his and Robert Clark’s book, Reflections Of South Carolina, Vol. II. The History Press of Charleston just released his book, Classic Carolina Road Trips From Columbia. He writes a weekly column for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina about the South, its people, traditions, lifestyle, and changing culture.

 

 

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