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Tree doesn’t make or break Christmas

Throughout my early years our family always had a real Christmas tree. The tree was always a large one that required guy wires to keep it in place in our large living room.  Festooned with multiple strings of colored lights, ornaments, garland, icicles and topped with an angel it was always the center of our holiday celebration.

Then one year when I came home from college on Christmas break I was confronted with something that nearly drove a spike through my Christmas spirit. I was home only a few minutes when my mother bade me to come to the living room. From her demeanor it was obvious that she was excited and wanted to show me something. A surprise, perhaps a color television, what could be more Christmassy.

Entering the living room, I was confronted by a silvery object that at first I had trouble comprehending. I then realized that what I was looking at had the shape of a Christmas tree but it wasn’t a tree. It wasn’t green like a tree. What it looked like was the creation of some demented artist who had gone wild with aluminum foil, scissors and wire.

The tree sparkled garishly in the afternoon light but then my father turned on a spotlight that bathed the thing in alternating colors of red, green, yellow and white as a wheel with colored filters revolved in front of the spotlight. All Christmas vacation long whenever the spotlight shown on the tree I was reminded of Jimmy Cagney caught in the glare of a searchlight during a prison break from some 1930s gangster picture.

That spotlight was the only light shining on the tree. Gone were the multi colored lights.  You see aluminum is an excellent conductor of electricity and any errant current leaking from a light string could electrify the entire tree. For that reason, the manufacturer was adamant about not stringing lights on the tree.  It would not do to have a family member, small child or elderly relative electrocuted at Christmas.

Gone also were the ornaments and other decorations collected over the years, replaced with red felt bows attached to the metal boughs. It appeared as if we had received a pre-Christmas visit from the Grinch who took the ornaments and tinsel but couldn’t be bothered taking the monstrosity that passed for our Christmas tree.

I could tell that my mother was happy and proud about this newest addition to our yuletide celebration so I was wary of how my reaction to the “thing” would be received.  In the end I couldn’t help myself and all I could say was, “but it’s not a tree!”

I don’t think that my father cared much but I think my mother was a little hurt by my reaction. Anyway, because I was sometimes known as the family malcontent she soon got over it, probably thinking, “that’s just Tom, and you know how he can be.”

I remember that I didn’t sleep well that night, the vision of the “thing” in the living room intruding on my dreams. I wondered where we as a family had gone so wrong that the monstrosity in the living room could be accepted as the center of our Christmas celebration. Perhaps it was the stress of the ongoing Cold War or the Vietnam War.  Whatever it was, having part of my yule world shattered was unsettling.

The next morning, I went out and bought a real Christmas tree. Being late in the season the good ones were gone but I bought the best I could. I got it home and with the help of one of my brothers I set it up in a large upstairs alcove, dragged the lights and decorations down from the attic and decorated it. Some members of my family dismissed the tree as a “Charlie Brown” tree to which I replied, “yes but at least it’s a real tree!”

The following year the “Thing” appeared again at Christmas but after that deservedly passed into the haze of Christmases past. After that my parents finally went back to real trees and once again all was right with world.

After my wife and I were married we had real trees for the first 15 years but switched to an artificial tree when we discovered that our family had various allergies and sensitivities to the sap, dirt, pollen and mold brought into the house with a real tree. But our artificial tree was green and not an aluminum monstrosity. We could even put lights and ornaments on it.

Finally, a Merry Christmas to each and every one of you whether your tree be real, artificial or even aluminum.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com

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