I HAVE good memories of our family Christmas tree.
It was the constant in all our Christmas decorations as I was growing up. The trimmings and the balls would change according to the theme of the year, but the tall green plastic tree would be the family Christmas classic.
There are many pictures of my sisters and myself, holding silver sparkles and fringes, hanging candy canes made of plastic glass and spraying the plastic leaves with fake snow. My Dad documented a lot of those young Christmas years. Putting the tree up as a family was tradition, was something we looked forward to year after year.
The tree eventually evolved carrying paper poinsettias and silk ribbons. Gone were the days of technicolored balls and wooden soldiers. Perhaps all the kids in our home have grown, and the theme made a twist for the more sophisticated. A Victorian angel topped the tree, in place of the gold foil star of our childhood.
Year after year, fewer family members would be involved in putting up the tree together. I remember all five of us sprucing it up many years ago. After my youngest sister would top the tree with the star, my Dad would plug in the lights. We would all stand back, amazed by the rhythmic twinkling. It was Christmas, and we had our tree.
Last year, it was my Dad and my sisters’ boyfriends who put up our Christmas tree. My oh my, how traditions evolve, right? It was a funny sight when I dropped by my parents’ home and saw one boyfriend fitting the branches into the plastic stem, while my father held the base. It was eerie at the same time, as I wondered why I felt more like a stranger to this old plastic tree than family.
And through all those cycles of themes and family members, that tall green plastic tree remains constant. It’s seen various colors and various balls, different trimmings and different stars. It will remain unchanged to me, however. Whatever decorations cloak it, it is our tree — our family tree. It is, and will always be, the tree that has seen a lot of Christmas memories, my happy family Christmas memories.
