Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Christmas Tree Memories

As a child growing up we had real Christmas trees but now my Christmas tree is artificial because I am allergic to all kinds of Christmas trees. They make me itch from head to toe and break out in hives, then there is the sneezing and wheezing none of which is a lot of fun!

My whole family went to purchase our Christmas tree. I am the eldest of five children, so it was a big production to say the least and you can be sure that it was never easy to narrow down our choices. Every tree had to be inspected by all of us and could not have any "empty" spots. In Florida, our tree was always in front of the sliding glass doors to our patio and in North Carolina our tree is always in front of the living room windows so that it could be enjoyed by all.

I remember the old, beautiful glass ornaments we had, the colored lights, garland and tinsel. The Christmas tree lights we had were kind of narrow at the top like a Christmas tree and rounder at the base. I remember pulling out strings of lights, plugging them in to see if they still worked or needed to be replaced. As we got older those bulbs got harder and harder to replace so now I believe that everyone uses the little mini lights or the LED lights these days.

These days my tree is full of handcrafted ornaments made by my Aunt, Barbara Rueff and sand dollar ornaments made by my Aunt, Bonnie Elbert. There are also ornaments made by my children, ones I have received as gifts or collected myself including my one set of ruby, Waterford crystal ornaments. I will leave the descriptions and pictures of these for another post.

This year as I put up my tree with it's clear white lights and my beautiful handcrafted ornaments lovingly made by my Aunts and/or collected for me by my friends, family or myself I will reflect on the memories of Christmas trees long ago and the not so distant past. I wonder if David remembers the Christmas where he and his brother Kenny convinced me to keep our Christmas tree until April of the following year? They watered that tree at least every other day and I finally told them it had to go!  I look forward to making new Christmas tree memories in the years to come with my family.

Now it's time for my son, David and his family to start their own traditions. Yesterday, they bought Easton's very first Christmas tree but it is more than just Easton's first tree, it is also the very first Christmas tree for their new home.

Easton's 1st Christmas tree, 2014