A Few Christmas Memories

Decorating the tree when I was a kid was usually something my brothers and I did. (And after Rick and Mike were gone, it was something that fell to me and Chuck.) I'm sure I have some photos that show the tree a little better, but this one gives you the idea, in case you've never seen a vintage '60s-era aluminum tree.

You can find these actual trees online now, btw. Isn't the internet wonderful?

We had an array of glass ornaments (and in the late 70s, some of the trendy "satin" ones), ceramic ornaments, paper ornaments, ornaments my mom crocheted, and ornaments we kids made at school over the years. Putting those ornaments on the tree was like looking through a scrapbook.

We also had a color wheel. A color wheel, if you've never seen one, shines a light through a colored lens (on a wheel) up at the tree, creating slowly-shifting colors on your aluminum tree.

Chuck used to love the color wheel. As a very small child, he would often fall asleep under the Christmas tree, watching the colors change.

After the tree, we would always put up the cardboard fireplace. It had a light bulb that had a little propeller thing (I know there is a word for this, but I can't think of it right now) on top that turned with the heat convection from the light bulb. That would give it a flickering effect as the light shined through the red tissue flames on the cardboard logs. It really was quite ingenious.

Chuck and I had little jokes where we would pretend to warm ourselves by the fire. Ha! On a side note, the other day, T and I were at Sam's Club and passed a display television with a fireplace screensaver. T pretended to warm his hands by the fire. It made me laugh, just like it always has.

As a child, we also had a nativity set that we carefully put up in the living room. Now, I remember getting this set. I was so little--I must have been, because we had it for so long--and the details are sketchy, but...

We would go to Robin Hood Department store once a week for these figures. Robin Hood was very small by today's standards. The store, not including the attached auto shop was about 2000 square feet (I'm guessing from memory. It's not there any more.) I'm not sure why we went there so often other than the nativity, but Robin Hood is the place we got ribbon candy at Christmastime, too.

Anyway, we would go once a week in the weeks leading up to Christmas and we would get one or two of the figures. It was pretty exciting. And, at Christmas, we ended up with a whole nativity scene.

Of course, when we were little, we didn't just set up the nativity for display. We played with that set, too. Not sure what we were doing, maybe reenacting the story of the birth of Christ? But, these things got pretty banged up over the years. They got chips and cracks (and a flat-out break on one) and the paint wore off in places.

Still, I wish I had that set now. After Mom died, Dad gave away all the Christmas decorations, including the nativity and our hand-made ornaments.

Early on (maybe not our first Christmas, but definitely the second or third) T and I bought this lovely nativity set for our family tradition.

I still get to be the one to set it up.