Tannenbaum Memories: Selective Recollections of Christmas Trees Gone By

A memoir/essay about Christmas trees in history, and our family's past and present Christmas trees.

Tannenbaum Memories: Selective Recollections of Christmas Trees Gone By

 

            Everyone holds memories of Christmas dear, but recollection of past years Christmas trees prove fleeting. We approach Christmas 2010. No kids visiting this year so we asked ourselves, why bother with a tree? The decorations, the tangled lights, the mess, why fuss? We probably won’t remember the tree next year, anyway. I do recall grandma and grandpa’s tidy Christmas tree with tenderly placed tinsel, boiling bubblers, and whizzing spinners that made Christmas Eve special or was it all those presents? Wife Karen recalls standard sweet-smelling Christmas trees with scale villages and toy trains, and her grandparents’ trees decorated with showy hot lights and gobs of tinsel while presents lay below on angel hair blankets.

Even history sporadically recalls Christmas trees. There are prior mentions of trees, but the first documented Christmas trees were in Estonia around 1440, and by the 16^th century, they spread to Livonia and Northern Germany. These accounts of fir trees, or tannenbaum had fruit, nuts, and paper flower decorations.   

As this Christmas grew closer, we recalled those special past trees. Our huge backyard lilac bush needed dire pruning, and so being a little different this year, an eight-foot lilac bush now sits in a creamery can.

Time marched on for us, and some Christmas tree memories perplexingly dimmed. Karen and I barely remember the tabletop tree of our first Christmas in Lubbock, Texas when Benjamin was a few months away. But in Mary Esther, Florida for Benjamin’s first Christmas, we had a middling tree with only a few lights and ornaments, but it proved memorable as our first family tree. In Florida, I adopted the tradition of wild Christmas tree finding and stuck our van in the sand with a found tree in back. It was a yellow-green sparsely needled Jack Pine, but once decorated, it shone like a gem. Karen, Ben, and I celebrated three Christmases in Spain. Most Air Force people lived in “Little America” where we purchased our Christmas tree, but we lived in the village of Dagonzo among only Spaniards. The Spanish celebrate gift giving with the Three King’s arrival complete with sandy camel tracks, so ours was an early tree in the village. We celebrated wearing coats in our unheated house. 

In the early 19^th century, British royalty enjoyed Christmas trees including George the III and a certain child�"Victoria. Popularity of Christmas trees spread in Britain during her reign. In an Americanized picture, Queen Victoria without her tiara and Prince Albert without his mustache flank a decorated Christmas tree

            While we were away, my mother related the story of The Infamous Christmas Tree Massacre when father trimmed the tree in the parlor with an electric chainsaw. We missed an indelible tree memory because mom said sawdust was in every room. Back to the states and tree finding, we found a real fine tree out on Eglin Test Range. One night, while Karen’s grandma slept in the living room, our found tree crashed to the floor. We lost only a few ornaments but not grandma. At KI Sawyer, our tree was so huge, little Ben spoke to grandma on the phone engulfed by Christmas tree greens. Apart during Desert Storm, Karen and Ben wrestled with a bent tree at home, as I forecasted sandstorms in a Riyadh basement with a fake two-foot tree mailed to me in a tube.  

Our yuletide lilac bush maintains traditional lights, aluminum foil icicles, and ornaments from every one of our past tannenbaum memories. After five days in our heated house, the bush leafed out nice and green.

Quebec, Canada had a tree erected in 1781 by Brunswick soldiers garrisoned against American attack. In the United States, there were many claims of first Christmas trees after 1770, but the first popularized tree was erected by August Imgard in 1847. This Christmas tree was a blue spruce with white candy canes.

A tour for us in Alamogordo, New Mexico spun past without a memorable Christmas tree, and we found ourselves in Wasilla, Alaska approaching Christmas in an empty house. With only a few purchased ornaments and lights on the tree, we hung pictures of high-ticket items like watches, jewelry, and cars laminated in clear packing tape. We found twisted aluminum foil made fine looking icicles. Our hand built house had a great room with twenty-three foot ceilings, so I, for once, couldn’t find a tree too big. We dragged huge balsams up hill and down dale, though trouble ensued when attempting to hang ornaments on the delicate branches with a ski pole. As expected, the ornaments did not bounce on the concrete floor after falling from that height.

Tradition dictates decorating trees on Christmas Eve or the first day of Christmas, the 23^rd, and to avoid bad luck, they must be taken down on the twelfth day, January 6. In this era of recycling, avoid modern bad luck and remember cut trees are fully biodegradable. Finally, from my own embarrassing experience, an added safety hint: Do not burn the Christmas tree in a fireplace because you may almost burn the house down!

In conclusion, a moral arises from this brief Christmas memoir. Make every Christmas special whether you spend it with family or without, enjoy it with plenty or hardly anything at all, and celebrate Christmas with a memorable Christmas tree whether it is traditionally genuine or eccentrically original. By the way, the yuletide lilac bush now has flower buds. Lilac blossoms for Christmas? We should remember that!

Reviews

[wondering]

wow how right you are who thinks about christas trees past? Although I do occasionally. Always bought a new ornament for the kids each Christmas with the intentin of giving them their 18 or 20 some ornament when they moved out, but A house fire changed all that , always thought they could look back at child hood memories by looking at the ornaments. Thanks for making me smile.