Trees of Christmases past fall somewhere between Charlie Brown and Clark Griswold
I bought a pee wee Charlie Brown holiday tree last year.
It has a single, red ornament. A few lonely branches. I like that little tree. Always a sucker for nostalgia. And the underdog.
It was a fit last year but I knew it wasn’t enough holiday tree for a home.
This year, my 3-year-old grandson Reed has reached that ooh-and-awe toddler stage. It’s time for a normal tree in my home again. Time for PaPa to step up his game.
I have never been a big holiday lights guy. I enjoy driving by and looking at decorations a lot more than putting them up. And I am at my lowest confidence level when standing high on a ladder.
I thought about my Christmas trees past.
There are no Hallmark movie moments. Trees have never consumed me. Clark Griswold would make fun of me.
For many years, Mom had a silver aluminum tree with the complementary twirling rainbow projector light. The shimmering tree was cool in the 1960s. That tree was ruined in one of the great Terrace Drive floods from the nearby Harding Ditch.
The Mackins went the real tree route. On a Friday night, Mom loaded us up in the white station wagon. We headed to the tree lot in front of Kroger’s on State Street. The lot was manned by volunteers. A few were Dad’s old friends asking us if we were “Bud’s three boys?” They smoked fat cigars and drank something steaming from a Styrofoam cup.
The annual tree shopping usually ended with Mom mad and telling us she’d never take us shopping for another Christmas tree again.
Our challenges were more with the lights than shopping for trees. We were in a big hurry to take the tree down after New Year’s Day. We unwrapped and wadded the strands of tree lights into a tangled mass and stuffed them in a box. We bought new lights every year. It was simpler than untangling last year’s web of old lights.
As a dad, a fond memory was taking my two kids to the tree lot by the Skyview Drive-in in West Belleville. Old friend Jim Montgomery Sr. always gave my two kids a Tootsie Roll pop. We talked about when I played Khoury League baseball with his son, Jim Jr.
State champs.
Two constants: real trees always looked much smaller in the tree lot. And the base of the tree always looks straight in the lot. Get it home and the tree barely fits through the door. Over the years, I learned how to whittle a tree from bottom up to make it fit straight in a corner.
Which brings me back to this year. I went to the local Ace Hardware and bought an artificial tree. It has small lights already wrapped and installed. I found a small bag of ornaments from my late Aunt Marie. Bought a box of ornaments.
My goal was simple, obviously. Put up a bigger tree that last year, something between a Charlie Brown and a Norman Rockwell. Something I can store in the basement, as it is. Bring it back upstairs in 12 months.
Not a Hallmark movie moment, sure.
Plus, the Charlie Brown tree is out again, too.
You have to be careful to not allow the holidays to overwhelm you. Too many Christmas songs, cookies, Hallmark movies, memories, shopping lists, parties, cups of egg nog, toasts, tears, traditions and more songs.
One thing is for certain – my holiday trees and decoration won’t overwhelm anyone, including myself.
