(Day 1 of the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories…this was first post in 2010…I hope you enjoy it)
My Grandpa and Grandma Lassalle always had an artificial tree. It was flocked and had red satin balls on it. They set up one of those rotating color lights that reflected off the branches rather than stringing it with lights. Thinking of that tree is one of my Christmas Eve memories.
We never had an artificial tree as kids. We had Charlie Brown Christmas Trees!
My Dad always bought the tree. I have to say he is really bad at selecting Christmas trees. He either picks the first one he sees or he has a soft spot in his heart for trees that look pathetic.
We attempted to get trees that were 6 or 7 feet tall, with a bunch of branches. But, my Dad was a magnet for scraggly trees with bare spots. He’d bring them home and we couldn’t help but laugh. Poor pathetic tree!
The last tree he got was a real loser. I was sitting in the rocking chair looking at it before it was decorated. There was something peculiar about it. It wasn’t decorated yet and I could see right through to the wall. I stepped closer to see what this illusion was. The dang tree only had needles on 3-4 inches of the branches! The rest of the branches were completely bare. The salesperson should have paid us for taking it off their hands!
My Dad was retired from the family Christmas tree selection committee a couple of years before he passed away. His emphysema made lifting a tree too difficult to do. Thank goodness! It wasn’t very nice to laugh at those trees every Christmas.
[This was my blog post from 2010. My Dad passed away in May. He will be sorely missed from our holiday celebration including the selection of the tree. We will always get a chuckle remembering the pathetic trees my Dad brought home.]
