Kolenburg Family Christmas Trees

When I was growing up in Chicago, we always had a real tree. I guess "in those days" artificial trees were not as commonplace as they are today. If you had a tree, it was one you picked out at the Christmas tree lot. The trees arrived just after Thanksgiving and were set up in parking lots around the area. We always went to the lot on Central Ave. just south of Sunnyside and we always went the first Saturday in December. Daddy, Pam and I would get in the truck and head over to pick out the perfect tree. Of course, it had to be whatever kind it was that Daddy said we had to get. We would pick out other trees but... Well, we'd try to pick the biggest and the best and then Daddy would pay and they would tie it up and we would take it home. I'm guessing we always got it in the truck or in the trunk of the car because I can't imagine Daddy ever tying it on top of the car!

When we got it home, we would untie it, put it in the stand, and stand it up against the back of the house. The branches had to settle down before we could bring it in. Seems to me we waited until the next weekend to bring it in and decorate it.

It was almost always set up in the basement along the finished wall between the door to the "store" and the "bathroom." First thing was to put the lights on. I loved the challenge of untangling the light strings. It seemed that no matter how careful we were in putting them away, they always were tangled when you took them out in December! You'd have to check all the bulbs and replace the ones that were burned out. These were the light sets that had big bulbs. We had a couple twinkle lights but Daddy didn't like those so we only had a couple. Then we had to go around the tree and hook each light onto a branch in a way that the bulb wouldn't be touching the needles. This could end up to be a scratchy job and sometimes sticky. Somewhere along the way, this became my job. I think it was because I was impatient and wanted to get the job done. When Mom would get interrupted and have to go do something else, I would sit there and work with the lights. Then I started putting them up and did a good enough job that it became my job.

After that we hung tinsel garland. I remember ours being silver, but they did make it in gold as well.

The next thing would be to put the ornaments on. Pam and I each had a big shiny ball with our name on it. I had that until after we got married but one year it broke into a zillion pieces. I was heartbroken over that. I always got to hang my "pacifier" ornament that was given to me on my first Christmas when I was one month old. There were several metal bells that we hung on the tree. Mom had made several egg ornaments that were really pretty for years.

The star went on the top and then it was time to put the tinsel on. Tinsel came in a box for about 39 cents. There were some large amount of strands in a box but they were cut at the same time and stuck together. So, we'd start out being good and hanging one strand on each branch. You had to hang it very carefully so it draped like an icicle. That worked for awhile until we got tired. Then we wouldn't be very careful about pulling them apart and would be hanging several strands at a time. This was okay but it didn't look as dainty/pretty. After we'd get really tired, we started throwing clumps on the tree thinking we could get away with that. But Mom was smarter than we were and pretty observant.

With a real tree, you had to water it daily. So, every morning we would crawl under the tree and add water to the stand. Still, when you took it down (after Pam's January 6th birthday), needles would drop with a tinkling sound onto the floor.

One year we got a silver tree and we thought it was really classy. Ever see the pictures of the silver trees in the 60's? Well, that's what it looked like. Classy, huh?

Here are a couple of ornaments that we still have that hung on the trees in my childhood years.

A couple funny tree stories before I quit for today. Sometime when I was in grade school I got the idea that it would be so nice to have the tree out so we could dance around it and ring bells. I must have read a story about that... Anyway, this was one year when the tree was over on the east side of the basement by Daddy's office. I remember crawling under the tree and carefully pulling it out from the wall. Then I removed bells and rang them as I circled the tree. Mom wondered what I was doing but didn't come down. I was able to put the tree back without her knowing... or at least I don't think she knew.

After Ken and I were engaged, I read in a book that sometimes newlyweds have trouble their first Christmas because they come with ideas of how it should be. One problem, they noted, was whether or not the new couple wanted a real or artificial tree. (By this time, the artificial trees looked better and had "caught on.") I remember asking Ken very cautiously what he wanted. He was a bit hesitant to say it (as was I) since we both had real trees in our houses but he admitted that he'd like to have an artificial tree. He was tired of being under the tree trying to screw the stand on and make it level with everyone saying, "No, a little this way. Oh, a little to the right..." I was tired of the lights and the tinsel and wanted an artificial tree, too. So, our first Christmas in our apartment, we used my 3' Christmas tree and bought a 6' tree the day after Christmas.

Patti's 3-ft. Christmas tree... now that's a story for another day...