Christmas Trees

  • Thread starter Thread starter BamaRider
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
You mean the big, shiny, pink aluminum tree, or the little bitty tree that can barely hold up an ornament?
Click to expand...
I was tawkin about that poor little tree he came home with that drooped when you put a ornament on it. But didn’t the gang fix it up? I can’t remember, reckon I’m gonna watch it again this year, too long since I did that.

Somebody needs to start a poll. Favorite Kids Christmas Specials.

The nominees are

Charlie Brown Christmas

Rudolph

Frosty the Snowman

The one about the Grinch

I’m sure there are more but all I can think of them. I’d do the poll but I already got this one goin.
 
Among_Strangers said:
Fake city here. But it looks good.

One year, I think it was our (DW & I) 2nd Christmas together. We did real trees. I had just put up the tree. We had spent the morning decorating it. We stepped back to look and it promptly fell over. Got it back up, fixed it. 2 hours latter it fell over again. We had only had it a day and it looked like it had been through a World War already. We opted for the fakery unit after that. Never had the fake one go to ground.
Click to expand...
Only had one tree do this to us and it was only once, my husband used to tie it up to the ceiling so it wouldn’t fall over. We had real the first 3 or 4 years of our marriage and then we got a fake one - had one ever since. Good thing too because one of my allergies is to - tada - evergreen pollen (and yes, they have pollen)

We put ours up Thanksgiving weekend and it doesn’t come down until after Epiphany!

Brenda V.
 
BamaRider said:
I was tawkin about that poor little tree he came home with that drooped when you put a ornament on it.
Click to expand...
You should have seen the ones we cut down when we lived in South Dakota. The forest service sold tree permits for less than $10. We’d fill a Thermos or two with hot cocoa and load all four boys with their seven layers of warmth into the truck, a six-pack of humanity with the dog in the bed. Then we’d head out on to the back roads of the Black Hills to locate THE ONE.

My sweetie would pick a spot to park and we’d all pile out and go tramping through the woods studying every other tree – with four boys, we couldn’t spend too much time being thorough about it, though. When my darling chose a tree, we all backed off and gave him room with the saw.

I think the first year, he picked one that was growing right beside another tree. He got it down, and the boys and I filed into the hole between branches to help carry it to the truck. We got it home and several of us again got into the hole to help get the tree off the truck and into the house. That’s when we realized it was too tall.

So my man cut off the bottom three feet of tree to make it fit in the living room. That’s when he realized there was a hole in it. There was one branch at the new bottom of the tree, then a two-foot empty space, then an actual Christmas tree. So he cut off another length of trunk.

Here’s the thing about real trees that grow in real woods: they don’t grow in beautiful cone shapes. This branch goes way out over there while the branches on that side curve back toward the middle. The ones on one side stretch up while the other side is empty because another tree fell on it. Those were not catalog-worthy trees by any stretch of the imagination, but like the Peanuts gang, we made them beautiful through the love that we put into them.
 
Loren_1of6 said:
You should have seen the ones we cut down when we lived in South Dakota. The forest service sold tree permits for less than $10. We’d fill a Thermos or two with hot cocoa and load all four boys with their seven layers of warmth into the truck, a six-pack of humanity with the dog in the bed. Then we’d head out on to the back roads of the Black Hills to locate THE ONE.

My sweetie would pick a spot to park and we’d all pile out and go tramping through the woods studying every other tree – with four boys, we couldn’t spend too much time being thorough about it, though. When my darling chose a tree, we all backed off and gave him room with the saw.

I think the first year, he picked one that was growing right beside another tree. He got it down, and the boys and I filed into the hole between branches to help carry it to the truck. We got it home and several of us again got into the hole to help get the tree off the truck and into the house. That’s when we realized it was too tall.

So my man cut off the bottom three feet of tree to make it fit in the living room. That’s when he realized there was a hole in it. There was one branch at the new bottom of the tree, then a two-foot empty space, then an actual Christmas tree. So he cut off another length of trunk.

Here’s the thing about real trees that grow in real woods: they don’t grow in beautiful cone shapes. This branch goes way out over there while the branches on that side curve back toward the middle. The ones on one side stretch up while the other side is empty because another tree fell on it. Those were not catalog-worthy trees by any stretch of the imagination, but like the Peanuts gang, we made them beautiful through the love that we put into them.
Click to expand...
Having passed through SD many times on tours, I was about to ask where’d you find a tree in South Dakota? LOL. Then I read further y’all went to the Black Hills.
 
We always have a real tree. For the past 13 years there have been ornaments only on about one strip in the middle of the tree. The kids can’t reach the top and the baby (there’s always been a toddler here since then!) rips them off the bottom. It looks great.

I love finding the tree, too. I drag whichever kid I can to come with me to the tree farm and we look forever for the perfect tree. Then my husband and one of the boys goes back to cut it down. It’s always a hoot because I have absolutely no ability to judge the height of a tree - and I always pick a 12 footer. We have 9 foot ceilings, so I begrudgingly agree to part with a few feet of the tree and then we shove it into the house with the top bending over scraping the ceiling.

If I had a fake tree, though, I would build a hidden closet in the corner of the living room and just leave the darn thing standing, decorated, and slide it out on tracks or something. It’s not that I don’t like decorating the tree, but those lights! What a pain!
 
I grew up in the country so going out to find and cut down a Christmas tree with Dad was just part of the routine. When we got older, my brother and I would just walk out to the woods and find one OR as we did one year, spend hours looking for a tree and then stop by my aunts’ for hot chocolate and gratefully accept the extra tree that Uncle had cut.

We went the artificial route when we first got married because we lived in an apartment building and real trees were forbidden but once we’d moved into a house it was back a real tree.

Over the years I’ve had pine (painful to decorate but gorgeous), fir and spruce. Now that we live in Labrador we’ve either gone out to cut down a local tree (it could be 20 feet tall but usually very skinny because of the terrain and the weather) or buy a cultivated one from the Knights of Columbus ($45 this year). The only problem with cultivated trees is that they never bring in small trees, only 7 & 8 foot ones. This year, since we’re alone, I don’t feel like doing a big tree so I think we’ll go the ‘cut your own’ route and get a small 5’ tree.

Usually our tree goes up either the 4th Sunday of Advent or the Wednesday before Christmas and I take it down a couple of days after New Year’s – usually because by that time it’s shedding too much. DH helps with the setting up but decorating, de-decorating and chucking out the tree falls to me.

The best ‘bought’ tree we ever had was the year we had been so busy with kids and work that we’d forgotten about a tree until a few days before Christmas. I went out looking and near our grocery store was a guy who sold anything and everything depending on the season or even the week. He had only one tree left and sold it to me for $5 to get rid of it (usually $20 in those days). Brought it home, unwrapped it and set it in the stand to thaw. It was about 6’ and full, very full, and as it thawed it got wider and wider and wider. By the time it was fully thawed it was only slightly narrower at the base than it was tall and perfectly shaped.

When it comes to Children’s TV specials/ Christmas shows in order of preference:

A Charlie Brown Christmas – I think I’ve only missed it once since it’s first showing and even in university and then nursing school it was one of the most popular shows at Christmas time.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever – I bought the video so that I could watch it every year.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas – that song at the end always produces goosebumps.

The Night They Saved Christmas – Paul Williams as an elf & Art Carne as Santa is a combination not to be missed.

For a few years in the 80s, the CBC used to show pantomimes produced by Ross Petty & Karen Kain. We taped 2: The Cinderella Gang and Aladdin. We watched those every Christmas until our Beta VCR died/kids accidentally taped over them.

They were real pantomimes with audience participation & men playing women (Cinderella’s ugly step-sisters & Aladdin’s mother were played by men). Petty still produces them every couple of years but the CBC seems to ignore them.
 
joamy said:
That reminds me of my grandma’s silver tinsel tree with blue ornaments. It was kinda sorta psychadelic sixties though… . Must be why I twitch every time I see blue light specials. :bluelite: :bluelite: :bluelite:
:christmastree1:

Actually, I’d like one like you want - bubble lights, though?
Click to expand...
My grandmother had a flocked tree with satin-style ornaments and a color wheel. No lights- you couldn’t put lights on those flocked jobs, for fear of fires, certainly not the big 1950s bulbs or the bubble lights that came out in the 1940s.
Favorite Christmas specials:

Rudolph. Although I tell the girls this is only a story, because you know I am one of Santa’s computer network technicians. Program his Blackberry and his iPhone. Elves are not tech savvy.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Gotta love those Herdmans. It was one of the first Accelerated Reader tests both girls took on their own. And every year we read the book aloud THEN watch the movie.

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. It is kitschy bad. We watch it Mystery Science Theater (MST3K) 3000 style, with plenty of popcorn and commentary.
 
I grew up with the fake trees, my hubby didn’t, so the first year we were married we went out and cut down our own tree. Very nice, got it home and started to decorate it. It was a lot of fun, until I started sneezing and getting itchy. He already had it in the stand and the lights on. I wasn’t about to ask him to take it down. But we didn’t leave it up much past Christmas, I couldn’t go into the living room:blush: That was our last real tree. Oh well. It still looks really pretty and I can be in the same room with it, so that’s a plus:thumbsup:
 
I voted real, but it’s a bit misleading. This year I’m not having a tree. I live alone, and I don’t know what I’m doing for Christmas, but I don’t really have room for a tree in my itty-bitty apartment.

Here in Korea you can’t buy a real tree. I’ve never seen a real decorated tree in Korea - just the fake ones. Bleagh. I like lovely fresh trees that smell wonderful and drip razor-sharp needles on the floor. That’s my kind of tree!

When I move back to Canada, assuming my boyfriend (who will hopefully be my husband by then) has no objections to real Christmas trees, I’m going to have a nice big tree that touches the ceiling and has to be tied in place with fishing line so it doesn’t fall over right smack in the middle of the living room. Hopefully we’ll have kids and dogs running around the place, too! That’s my kind of Christmas.
 
My wife bought a beautiful fake one three years ago.

My daughter still makes me buy a real one every year.

So the answer is…BOTH 👍
 
I find these poll results shocking:eek: :eek: I really didn’t think many people did artificial trees…learn something new every day.

Y’all are so ‘practical’ about the tree issue, but I guess that’s not surprising coming from Catholics:)

Still I like having a real tree despite some of the hassles. Something that you’ve cut down that still ‘lives’ in your home is just…nice.

But as for the TV specials, my fav has to be Rudolph. Followed by Charlie B. Last year I missed Rudolph and it was just not the same…😦
If you mean that it’s made in a factory out of non-flammable materials and flame retardant, why yes, it’s fake. I’ve seen a Christmas tree burn, and it’s not a pretty sight. So all these years, I’ve had fake trees.
Click to expand...
outin that’s funny because the story every Christmas in my family is how in 1975 my grandparents had a big fire in the house that destroyed pretty much the first story of their house on Dec 23rd, and the Christmas tree, a real one, hadn’t burned. They were told by the fire people then that because the tree was moist, well watered, it would have taken it a looooooooooong time to burn. So maybe the secret is a fresh well watered tree? I’m sure Bama can tell us:D
 
Coolest Christmas “Tree” was my younger brother’s for his second Christmas home from Viet Nam. My wife made the ornament hanging from the spout.
 
HouseArrest said:
We always have a real tree. For the past 13 years there have been ornaments only on about one strip in the middle of the tree. The kids can’t reach the top and the baby (there’s always been a toddler here since then!) rips them off the bottom. It looks great.
Click to expand...
Now this reminds me of the old Hudson’s departmen store Christmas-time ads: music playing, and the visual was of a group of kids (probably ages 3-7) having a blast hanging ornaments and tinsel on a tree. Then the camera panned out and you could see that the tree was HUGE and only about two feet of the bottom were absolutely covered in glitz. Very cute. 🙂
 
Tsuwano said:
I love the scent and feel of real trees decorated for Christmas, but it is terribly sad to dispose of them once Christmas has passed. It is much more practical, kinder to the environment, and less depressing (in my opinion) to keep and decorate a fake Christmas tree every year. Besides, here in Japan it is next to impossible to find real Christmas trees for sale. One good idea, if it is possible at your home, is to decorate a living tree in your yard and use that as your real Christmas tree and keep a smaller fake tree inside your house for Christmas morning.
Click to expand...
Actually here in the United States they get recycled and used for various uses such as mulch which can be used to help erosion control. I know the Philadelphia Zoo takes them and uses them for wildlife habitats and there are several hunting and convservation organizations that do the same. We go to a Christmas tree farm and can cut down our own tree for 30 dollars

**For anyone in the US looking for a **Christmas Tree Recycle program in their area.
 
The last several years I’ve borrowed the neighbor’s chipper/shredder and made mulch when the tree has lived its beautiful life. Before that, my oldest would help the Boy Scouts pick up & recycle trees. Now that our community became its own city, the city does it. Which stinks, because that was a huge fund-raiser. Not to mention the boys having fun getting dirty. And the lone Jewish scout mom would make fantastic breakfasts on tree collection days.

Charlie Brown tree? Hm. That first Christmas after my ex left me, I tried to make Christmas “as usual” for the kids. No money for a tree so I taped a construction-paper tree to the wall & we decorated that. When my youngest DD’s friend saw that, her mother thought it was cute. Then on Christmas Eve the whole family came over with a 4 ft live tree. One side was real funny-looking, we just turned it to the wall.

I think my neighbor was ready to call the nearest mental hosp. because I couldn’t stop crying.

That’s MY Charlie Brown tree story. That was six years ago & we remember it every Christmas.
 
shannyk said:
outin that’s funny because the story every Christmas in my family is how in 1975 my grandparents had a big fire in the house that destroyed pretty much the first story of their house on Dec 23rd, and the Christmas tree, a real one, hadn’t burned. They were told by the fire people then that because the tree was moist, well watered, it would have taken it a looooooooooong time to burn. So maybe the secret is a fresh well watered tree? I’m sure Bama can tell us:D

It probably is. And I am a creature of habit.

The tree in question burned in my driveway, courtesy of my son, who is schizophrenic and at that time was about 15.

It was a “spare” tree (because depending on the mood and the pocket, we’ve been known to have two, even three trees), one of those Norfolk pines that is miniature, but a little bigger than most, about 5 feet. It died. No idea why, but have my suspicions. I put it out so that we could cut it up to dispose of it, because many suburbs have no burn laws, and everything in Illinois that is “yard waste” has to go into a brown paper sack, not the regular garbage, not recycling.

We went back to exclusively artificial trees. But then, at that time, we slept in shifts and kept our sharp objects under lock and key.
Click to expand...
 
I like real Christmas trees. It’s the only time of the year our vacume smells good. Last time I checked fake needles don’t smell as good. 😛
 
We have TWO fake trees. It’s a long story and involves many moves and Navy life.
 
Our first Christmas tree was a Charlie Brown tree… well, more like a Charlie Brown tumbleweed. We just don’t grow “pretty” pine trees in our part of New Mexico!

Christmas specials:

Going by Bama’s list alone, it has to be (in order) “Charlie Brown”, “The Grinch” and then “Frosty the Snowman”. I used to like Rudolph, but then one day I finally REALLY heard Santa telling Donner (Rudolph’s dad) that he should be ashamed of himself over Rudolph’s nose and I just couldn’t believe Santa could be so heartless! But I always did like Yukon Cornelius, the Bumble and Hermie (my favorite line: “Hey, whaddya say we be independent together?”)

Other Christmas shows (Rankin and Bass had a lock on this!)

*Little Drummer Boy (loved Greer Garson narrating!)

*Santa Claus is Coming to Town (Fred Astair and Mickey Rooney!)

*The Year Without a Santa Claus (“I’m Mr. Green Christmas, I’m Mister Sun…”)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top