Re: The Christmas Tree From The 60's

SuperShopper · ‎08-23-2011

When I was 10 years old, it must have been Christmas of 1962, my mother announced in a huff that she was done with Christmas. My sweet father, knowing that I was heartbroken, decided to take over creating the Christmas cheer in our family. So he came home with one of those new-fangled aluminum trees, tall enough to reach the 8 foot ceiling of our little ranch home, complete with blue satin balls and the infamous rotating color wheel .... and parked it in front of our living room window, sort of like the leg lamp in The Christmas Story movie.

That tree graced that window for many years. Same blue balls and color wheel year after year. The year I turned 21, graduated from college and got married, my mother used all the bows from my wedding gifts to decorate the tree. Lots of yellow bows.

I don't know when that marvel of modern Christmas decor was retired from service, probably when my parents sold that house and moved to a retirement townhome, but somehow I was able to snag the balls and in pre-Etsy craftiness, cover them with gathered red plaid fabric, tied with sparkly gold stretchy ribbons trimmed in gold jingle bells at the ends. Those balls remain in my collection to this day over 50 years later and are still beautiful, although the bells tarnished long ago.

That devastating Christmas when my mother became the Grinch, a new tradition began of my father and I doing Christmas together. Year after year, sometimes across many miles, we would get together to trim the tree, continuing until my own daughter was born and grew old enough to join in. Sadly, my father passed away from leukemia when he was 59 and my daughter was 5, but some of my fondest memories are of us creating Christmas magic together.

He's been gone over 30 years now, but the memories are still painful and bittersweet.

Just a few days ago, I was walking through the huge section of artificial Christmas trees at a warehouse home decor store, and there amidst all the faux foliage samples stood a lone aluminum Christmas tree, just like the one I used to know.

Everything old is new again!

The Jetsons want their tree back!

candys mine · ‎08-20-2012

@SuperShopperI'm glad your Dad stepped up to the plate to give you Christmas cheer! I hope after a while your Mom ended up enjoying the fruits of your efforts. It's true, isn't it, that TIME together is the very best gift of all.

Cumbercookie13 · ‎05-06-2016

I was born in 1976 so I missed out on that trend and I don't know if my grandparents, who I lived with, had one in the 60's. They were on a lot of covers of generic Christmas albums my grandparents had though, and as a little girl I always thought they were pretty. The whole design concept of the late 50's and early 60's intrigues me. It just looks cool and sophisticated, but that's probably due to Hollywood's interpretation of it, and me being a kid of the 80's where it was loud, neon, colorful, and bright (but I enjoy that too).

But during the 80's and into the early 90's we had an artificial green tree where the branches were not attached to the tree, and each branch had painted ends with different colors and you had to put the branches in holes inside the tree in order by color. Well, some tips were pink and some white, and over time, the paint wore off and we couldn't tell which color was which! After my grandmother passed away, Pop and I downsized to a three foot tree with everything attached.

pattiewaddle · ‎07-23-2010

daughter just sold one she bought from a neighbor for 10.00. on ebay for $250. She nearly fainted it became a bidding war with some who wanted the tree because of memories.

Zsazsa · ‎09-27-2015

@Cumbercookie13

Your post brings back great memories of the tree from my childhood. I was born a few years before you, but we had that same type of green faux (lol) tree with the different color paint on the metal tips that went into the base.

And yes...as the years wore on, the paint wore off and it became more difficult to decide which went next!

We had that tree forever because it had a wooden ‘trunk’ that worked with our rotating tree stand and most trees made then had metal ‘trunks’. It was worth the sacrifice for that rotating tree stand. My parents got it the year I was born and I use it every year... it adds such a magical feeling...and brings back lots of wonderful memories.