Christmas Tree (Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories #1)

This Blog is pleased to join with other GeneaBloggers around the world in presenting this Advent Calendar over the next 24 days leading up to the Christmas celebration. There will be a different topic each day. I will attempt to post on each of the topics.

This post is number 1 in a series of 24 for the 2010 Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.
On the 24Th Day of Christmas, I am supposed to talk about the Christmas Tree.

Did you have a real tree, or was it artificial? How big was the tree? Who decorated the tree?












Christmas memories as a child are of a wonderful time. It was a busy time with getting ready for Church Christmas programs, decorating the Christmas tree and planning what we would buy as gifts for the family.

The picture on the left is at my grandma and grandpa Day's house. This is a picture of my dad holding our dog Lady, my mom, sister Mary and me. The year is 1957 .

Picture on the right is of my sister Mary , Dale and me. My father sold Insurance with Dale's father Ray. I am guessing the car I am sitting in is Dale's Christmas gift since my sister Mary and I do not remember having a car/fire truck. The year is 1956.


These pictures are of my little brother David. The pictures are taken at my mom and Dad's house on the Skyline Drive in Duluth,Mn. The tree is real and the year is 1967.







I remember the first trees were real and carefully decorated. They were usually about 6 feet tall and bought from a corner tree lot. At my grandparent's and aunt Daisy's home the job to decorate the tree was left to Aunt Daisy. My Aunt Daisy was extremely fussy and each piece of tinsel had to be placed just right on the tree. Every ball in the right place and of course you would always decorate the back of the tree. She would have us help her but carefully watched how we did it. And when we were all done we would get a bottle of ginger ale and a cookie.



When we would decorate our Christmas tree at our home the tree would also be real and bought at a tree lot. My father would place it in the stand and put on the Christmas lights. Then we would decorate it with my mother watching and telling us where to place the balls and tinsel. My mom had polio in the 1950's and was handicapped so her part was to give us the decorations, telling us where to place them and handing us the tinsel. And of course the tinsel had to hang just right. When it was all done daddy would put on the Christmas star.


It was a wonderful time. We would spend the evening with the lights off, the tree lights on and eating hot chocolate and cookies.





I am going to writing these postings as memories of my childhood rather than later years. I want to print out and give to my children and grandchildren so they can read them as they wish.