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Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, how withered are your branches? Every year, I always like to celebrate the holiday season with putting up the Christmas tree and putting the ornaments on it. And I am always hoping that I can somehow afford a new tree, but it seems that when the time rolls around, the expense of a new tree is just out of the question. I really do not know how much more life this tree has got left in it….really!

You see this tree is really ancient and was lovely when we first got it. It was a 6 foot Scotch pine and had the tips of the branches colored so that you knew just where the limb went on the pole. Well, this Christmas tree has seen the years and then some. Just exactly how old is it? It is almost as old as the hills and it really is on its last legs. The pole itself is somewhat splintered and is having a hard time holding onto the wired limbs. And mind you, the limbs are starting to look rather sparse as every year some of the needles make their way to the living room floor. Nowadays, we have to get a big rock or a steel vise to place on the stand in order to hold the tree straight and on the floor and cover it up with a tree skirt. And the pole also has to be anchored to the wall with a string in order to stop it from toppling over once the age old ornaments are placed on top of it. Did I mention that some of these ornaments are over 60 years old?

I used to decorate all the rooms, the banisters and the doorways with various Christmas arrangements but to be totally honest, stringing the lights around the 12 feet high windows and just trying to wrap this bare and broken tree with as many lights as it can hold, really does take all my energy. I really loved this tree as it has seen the births and deaths of many of my loved ones, and it has become almost like family.

However, with the passing of time, age also plays a number on the body, my eyesight is not that good and the arms are no longer strong and did I mention that I have lost about 4 inches from my height! I have seen some of the newer models of Christmas Trees and to be quite honest, the slender ones are okay, but I am used to a nice full tree with long needles and not the ones that I have seen today that have needles that look like paper and are half a centimeter long. And I heard that some of them are pull-ups and take two seconds or about 5 minutes to put up! Wow, the technology of today never ceases to amaze me!

Even if, by some chance I could be the benefactor of a new Christmas tree, that pulls up in an instant and has needles that are long and full and is colored in all white lights, I would still take the time to string on some of the colored bulbs to add some color to the scenario. And I would still drag out those old ornaments. But even some of these have not withstood the sands of time. No matter how well I wrap them up, every year it seems that somehow a few of them get broken.

As the holiday season fast approaches, I sit and reflect on Christmases past, when things were not as expensive and the children were younger. The Christmas tree was all aglow in its beauty and the presents were stacked out to almost the middle of the living room. The manger and baby Jesus were also lovingly displayed on the top of the floor model television and the Winter Wonderland village was on top of the floor model stereo. Stereo is still here, floor model cabinet tv is long gone.

Now that the kids are older, when it comes to the decorations, I dig through the boxes to pull out the plastic Santa and little Rudolph as well as the paper chain that I made in kindergarten and sometimes the kids will say, “You’re not putting that old, raggidity thing under there are you? They, of course, are talking about the raggidity Santa, not my artwork that is almost as old as the hills.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, I really wish that you were not too expensive for me! But oh, I can still wish, can’t I?

I would really like to do a product review of one of those new-fangled Christmas trees! A 6 foot, full tree, long needled Scotch pine pull-up tree, that is pre-lit. Any takers? I can dream about it, can’t I?

Wishing you and your family, a safe and happy holiday!