" The decorating of trees in our homes at Christmas started in Germany during the time of Martin Luther. Luther himself was believed to have started the custom. Following a walk through the woods on Christmas Eve, with the stars shining through the evergreens, he was so impressed that he attempted to show his family what the sight looked like by cutting down an evergreen and decorating it with lighted candles."
We'll leave the history story and continue with some "family" stories about Christmas trees.
Growing up our family always had a real, evergreen tree for Christmas. I remember a friend of mine in Hutchinson, Kansas who spoke of his family going to the country looking for a tumble weed to decorate. Interesting tradition but again, we always had a real evergreen tree. A "new" trend when I was growing up was to have an artificial tree. The ones I remember were silver/aluminum and had a four color rotating light focused on the tree giving it color; blue, red, green, yellow. Grandpa and Grandma Bear had one. It was interesting but not a real evergreen tree.
As your Mom(LaDonna) and I started a family we had real Christmas trees. By this time artificial trees had evolved to "more realistic" green trees but the cost was prohibitive for a young family. As the cost of real trees rose in price (to $40) we attempted to save money by going to a "cut your own" Christmas tree farm.
On our first attempt we drove south to Harrisonville, Missouri to select and cut down our own tree. Arriving at the farm we were given a bow saw and pointed to acres and acres of Christmas trees. We tromped through the woods with Jennifer, Susan and Matthew looking for the perfect tree. Trying to compare trees was difficult. Moving from tree to tree we would forget where we had been and which ones we liked. They all have a tendency to look alike. Seems like we thought about leaving a child at trees we wanted to compare but realized our luck at looking for "a tree" in the forest might not improve when looking for a child in the forest of trees. Several years later we gave in and bought an artificial tree figuring it would save money and time in the long run.
Which finally brings us to the story of Grandma Rita's Christmas tree. As I've already stated we always had a real Christmas tree in our home. In Lebanon Dad had a friend who owned farm acreage outside of town. So one year Dad decided, with permission, that we would cut down our Christmas tree on his friends farms. On a Sunday afternoon Dad, Mom and my brothers loaded up into our station wagon and drove to the farm. Not being a Christmas tree farm there weren't as many trees, they were farther from each other, and mostly cedar trees. We saw a tree we liked but decided it was too big and tall for our living room. We found another slightly smaller tree that seemed agreeable to us so we cut it down, loaded it in the station wagon and drove home. We put the tree up that evening and seems like we even started to decorate it.
Arriving home from school the next day my brothers and I saw the tree we had thought "too big" in our living room. Yes, it was too tall but Mom had decided she liked it better. She had driven back to the farm, found the tree, cut it down AND loaded it in the station wagon herself. Needless to say we were all surprised to see the bigger tree but not nearly as surprised that Mom had gone and brought the tree back by herself.
