Greetings everyone! Did everyone have a great day?? What do you like/dislike about putting up the

[debm55]

Last edited Thu Nov 24, 2022, 11:21 PM - Edit history (1)

tree and decorations? As a kid, we always put angel hair on the tree. If you did you know it is spun glass. I hated that. And putting the icicles on the tree. Dad insisted they be put on the tree one at a time. My brother would roll them in a ball and throw them on. What are your memories of decking the hall. Oh, yes, forgot those popcorn decorations (melted plastic) How about the needles on the rug. did anyone have a falling tree? Ornaments--homemade or those ornate ones? Tell it like it was at your house.

[LakeArenal]

1. I miss tinsel. I have loved the tree since the movies like It's A Wonderful Life.

Christmas in Connecticut.

Those early movie trees always had tinsel.

Then you find out your cat eating tinsel isn’t that good for them. Bummer.

[debm55]

3. Lake, buffy my yellow cat again, ate some tinsel. Saw him running around the house with it sticking

out his bum. Didn't know what to do, gently pulled and pulled and pulled. Never had tinsel after that.

[LakeArenal]

9. Dingle tinsel is the worst.

[Backseat Driver]

18. We used to have tinsel on the tree up through the 70s.

After the tree was taken down, I would pay a bounty of $0.05 to each of our two daughters if they found and tossed it in the garbage. Note: tinsel was once all aluminum then it became shiny metallic-covered plastic. Either way, along with the doggy hair, it stopped up the rollers on the vacume. I hated finding it all over the house in the oddest of places, but the kids sure liked getting nickels and found plenty of it all year long - sometimes I thought they even cut it in half so they'd each get the coins. Hmmmm...

Likewise, the ice cream cone fund from all change found in the pockets of trousers in the laundry by me! I even had a change sorter mounted on the wall. Do you think they purposely left it there? Hmmm...

[LisaM]

21. That old tinsel had lead in it.

We always had it, but I don't miss it. After they switched it, we stopped using it and later I realize I never liked the look.

What I do like are icicles. I have some glass ones and some plastic ones and I like the shine they give.

[Ocelot II]

2. It was just an ordinary day, no gathering, nothing special.

It's much too early for the tree, won't do one this year anyhow because there's nobody but me and the cat. When I was a kid we always put up our tree a week before Christmas, we had the old bubbler lights and the heavy tinsel that draped but that they don't make any more.

[debm55]

4. So did we. We kept ours up until Three Kings day as Dad was Orthodox. I love bubble lights. Have the

on my tree. Why don't you get a table tree. They come with lights.

[Ocelot II]

5. I do have an artificial table tree in the garage,

but it's too much bother to put together any more.

[debm55]

7. Ocelot, I kept mine mine up all year once, Just made montly decorations. I have a table tree that is

little --about 20 inches, all one piece lights included.

[Wicked Blue]

6. The bubble lights

Those candle-shaped electric lights filled with liquid that boiled and bubbled.

[Ocelot II]

8. I loved them. I remember just sitting and watching them.

[debm55]

11. Ocelot , they have the tree lights at Walmart in a 50's style box

[debm55]

10. Wicked I remember those. A couple of years ago, I found the bubble tree lights at WalMart. It was

cool because it came in a 50-60's style box.

[applegrove]

12. I used to do the decorations on my parents' tree. Once I bought green and blue lights and bulbs.

Put them all up. It was beautiful. My Dad walked and said put some red bulbs on the tree. We had some old bulbs from my great grandparents house, really lite bulbs. I once sprayed them with shellac so they would last. They did. And some of them went up on the little tree we put up in my dad's nursing home room. This year will be the first year I don't have a tree. I will really miss my dad this year I know. He was all about family and loved the holidays.

[debm55]

13. Applegrove, thank you for sharing my memories of the tree and your dad. He sounds like an

exceptional man. You were blessed to have him. When my friend's family members would die, I gave them a small pine tree to plant. there are ones you can decorated in your home (they are small) and take to the burial site or in your yard to remember your lost one. The ones I bought had a tag with a poem on it. In the Jewish traditions rocks are used, as flowers fade but a rock(like you love is strong)

[applegrove]

14. He was a good egg. Thankfully the world is filled with

good eggs like him. Not perfect by any stretch but a family man in the best sense of the word.

[happybird]

15. We used to string popcorn and cranberries to put on the tree when I was a kid until ...

our beloved beagle ate several rows and many, many candy canes while the family was sleeping. She ate everything she could reach. She was pooping candy wrappers and bits of string for days. It’s a miracle she didn’t knock the tree over. She was also very fond of drinking the water out of the tree stand.

We adored our beagles but there are many reasons why we became a Lab and Boykin Spaniel family.


I help Mom do her tree and it’s a mix of homemade and store bought ornaments and keepsakes from vacations and trips. It’s got everything from Elvis (when you press a button, he sings Blue Christmas so loudly it vibrates the whole tree) and Cousin Eddie’s RV from Christmas Vacation, to construction paper angels made by my nieces, clothes pin reindeer made by me in Brownies, and ornaments Mom made with my sister and I when we were little. We made something for our grandparents every year. There are also beautiful glass baubles and delicate carved wax angels from Jerusalem, pretty starched lace snowflakes made by my great grandmother, and everything in between. And beagles, labs, cats, and horses, of course. We have yet to find a Boykin ornament. This year we will add my cat Leo’s pawprint ornament next to the braided horsehair and other special pieces that honor our pets who have passed.

Somehow, it all works together and we have a blast unpacking the boxes. It’s a family history stowed away in a few ordinary looking rubbermaid containers.

[debm55]

16. happybird, that sounds like a beautiful tree. I really like the idea of having it as a memory tree

of both you, your family and the family pets.

[happybird]

19. I just checked my camera roll and don't have any pics :(

I do have a pic of Leo’s paw prints, one for me and one for Mom. They are about silver dollar sized.



They might get a light coating of silver glitter glue. Or maybe gold, to match his fur. A little sparkle will look good in the tree lights.

Here he is helping me wrap presents last year:



Naturally, he assumed they were all for him.
I miss that little dude so much.

[madamesilverspurs]

20. We made chains out of construction paper.

It was before the days of scotch tape, so we used mucilage, and it was messy! There were star-shaped metal reflectors that fit on the lights; I still have some, although they don't really fit today's much tinier bulbs, I still put one or two on the tree because they do reflect memories. There are several ornaments from the parent's first tree; they were married during WWII when all metal went to the war effort, and those glass ornaments still have the original paper hangers. Among those vintage ornaments was a garland made of multi-colored mercury glass beads, it now graces my sister's tree. I can remember being so fascinated by the tree's reflection in the living room window that I went outside to find that other tree; Mom said I wasn't quite three at the time. Along with the colors and lights I loved the music, delivered on 78s with one song on each side. Seven decades on, I still love the colors and lights and music (definitely not including shoes or grandmas assaulted by reindeer). And let's not forget the eggnog.


.

[Texasgal]

22. We used to do that too.. the construction paper.

We also did the salt dough ornaments as well. Mom still has them! LOL!

My grandmother gave me all of her vintage ornaments years before she died. Mainly from the 40's and 50's. They all have string attached to them for hanging. They are old, but I love them! She also gave me her tinsel, made of aluminum and secured by string; I love my vintage tree.

[debm55]

23. We did too. Did ever make the wooden ornament that you painted?

[Texasgal]

24. Yup! LOL!

Mom still has those too!