It's actually my grandparents' tree that I remember the most because it had a village of Putz houses under the tree every year. I think my nostalgia for those houses started my lifelong fascination with miniature villages.

The first Christmas tree that my DH and I had would have been in 1947. Decorations were hard to find. My DM found a string of clear lights and painted them with food colors and gave them to us. That is a memory I will never forget.

As a child I remember that my DF always had to have a tree that touched the ceiling. I still have a few ornaments that were used on those trees.

Good memories.

Sue

This post was edited by Sue-va on Fri, Dec 13, 13 at 19:21

I remember real tinsel and angel hair and the big Lionel trains under the tree with a beautiful village. Dad wouldn't do the village until we went to bed and he had to be up until 4:00 - 5:00 in the morning to finish it. It was fabulous.

We always had a huge tree in the living room. We had 10 ft ceilings and it came close to that. The thing I remember the most were the bubble lights. When I got married, we had no decorations, so Mom gave me about a dozen bulbs. I still have them in a box upstairs.

Shirley

Yes, i loved those bubble lights. I have an old light bulb in a bird shape and also an angel one. I also have old Christmas balls painted with horizontal stripes. They have to be at least 60 years old now.

Remember the silver aluminum trees with the colour wheels? We have one but no colour wheel for it. It stands proudly in our living room with blue balls. My sister brought me wrapping paper that matches the balls.

I remember my parents' Christmas tree, always a real one that my Mom and Dad put up on Christmas Eve. I still have some of the old Shiny Brite ornaments they hung on the tree. Some of the ornaments must be from the early 1940's or thereabouts, and I use them every year. We used to put the Lionel train under the tree too. Great memories.
Heather, I think I have seen some of those color wheels on Ebay.

Heather, yes, I have some silver ornaments with horizontal stripes too. They had been on my DHs grandparents tree, and my mom had some too. I suspect they were the first available ones they saw for sale after WWII. We had the foil tinsel too, but never angel hair because it was too dangerous.

the only ornament I can remember were some my "aunt" rose gave us...the tree she had them on was unheard of decorated and delivered in white! the ornaments were red and silver...

we used to go down every sunday to long beach ca to have dinner...well that one Christmas we had an earth quake...we stood in the doorways (the prescribed safe place) and watched that tree sway back and forth! not one fell or broke! it seems the building was built to then earthquake codes of being what my dad said were "rollers"...it was amazing...over the years the ornament were broken or lost, so when I was married everything was purchased or home made...

I don't remember much about the Christmas trees we had when I was growing up but the silver icicles we always put on. Mom didn't like mess so our trees probably weren't up very long.

I remember china bells..Real small china bells. It seemed that every time I got near the tree when I was little I would hear "Laura get away from that tree" it was years later that I realized Mom had put the china bells near where I would be reaching and she would hear the bells and knew I was messing with the presents or the tree so she could yell at me.. I thought she had some kind of radar in her head to know when I was close to the tree... I have those bells and still use them the way my Mom did with my children...

What I remember is making homemade decorations at school. To make paper garlands we used glue to connect paper circles which we sometimes colored with our crayons. We also used needle and thread to string popcorn for garlands. For ornaments we wrapped sweet gum balls with aluminum foil. Of course these went on a cedar tree which had been cut in the woods. We got by with a lot less 60 years ago.

OK, my years will be telling on me......we had real lit candles on the tree. It just boggles the mind to think of how dangerous that could be. But I do recall that they were not lit for very long, and my father always stood near the tree when they were lit.

All these responses brought back memories . . . except Phyllis' real candles. Yes, mind boggling, Phyllis. But how beautiful they must have been.

I remember real tinsel on our tree, and verrrrry fragile glass ornaments, many from Germany, I think. And a nativity set with barn, handmade by my mother, who was an artist.

On my friend Carolyn's tree, those magical bubble lights. And under our friend Howie's tree, the Lionel train set. I'll never forget the sound--or the smell--of it.

Same as alisande, the smell of the Lionel train set. Most remembered were the bubbling lights, still have them from the forties, but no longer work. Back in the sixties we bought some new ones. The shape of the older ones were so much prettier. Thanks for taking me back down Christmas memory lane.

I remember a lot of the same things -- real lead tinsel, bubbling lights, a Lionel train. I also remember my little brother trying to climb the tree and the whole thing came crashing over and broke a lamp. Oops. Bad idea. My dad insisted that the tinsel be put on the tree strand by strand rather than our method of throwing wads on it. I also remember my father trying to find the one bulb in the string that was causing the whole thing not to work and how hot those bulbs got.

My parents really made a magical Christmas for us each year and so did my great aunt who was like a grandmother to me. We spent my first few years at her house, the years when I was a True Believer! She later came to our house and spoiled us to death.

Well of course tinsel has to go on stand by strand! What were you thinking? LOL

Mention of a great aunt reminded me of a funny Christmas present. My mother's best friend was an "aunt" to me. She and her DH often stayed a week or more at our house, and after his early death, she stayed for months, on and off, between trips abroad. I was remembering the year a friend of hers in New England sent her a Christmas gift -- rather unusual, as this lady was beyond 'close' with her money. The card said something about my aunt having admired the enclosed, and we all puzzled over that...until it was unwrapped. It was a moth-eaten mink collar the giver had worn at least twenty years ago! I don't recall many Christmas gifts, but that took the cake.

First step - tradition - bundling up as kids, taking axes & saws, and tromping thru snow to find that perfect tree to cut down, and somehow getting it home. Always placed in the corner, so perfect it had to be tied to the two adjoining window sills with rope to keep it standing. Ah, that fresh pine smell. Ah, a week later, needles everywhere! So what, we had a tree. It was adorned with those big lights, bubble lights, an array of fabulous ornaments, and the tinsel. Always looking every day in case a new wrapped gift appeared under the tree. I never have, and never will, shake, peek, or question the giver. A gift should be a surprise. The gift pile would magically increase overnite after Santa's Christmas Eve visit, and the cookie plate would be empty. Early risng was necessary on Christmas morning to see the bounty, and siblings would wake siblings first. Old parents can wait. Breakfast was on the fly, if at all. It was a full morning of PJ's and paper and toys (and boring socks!) Everyone had their pile of goodies before the wrappings were discarded. We had to be dressed before the big meal, usually 1:00. The dining room table was fully extended, and the fine china place settings carefully placed. The best meal was duck, roasted to crispy perfection with all the trimmings. Gobble gobble, and back to the toys. Christmas Day was for our family to enjoy Christmas, not running all over the place. Friends/relatives could visit the next day, or whenever.
New Years Day, the holiday was over, so take down the tree. Ornaments were carefully packed away. And a final vacuum of those needles. The tree was chopped into small pieces and shoved into the coal furnace. Roast Pine! Bye bye Christmas for another year.
The picture shows one box of some of the tree ornaments, which I still have. There are also some of the huge, round, hand painted ones. Fa La La, and Merry Christmas to all.

{{!gwi}}

Up until I, the youngest in the family was in high school, the tree was not brought into the house till Christmas Eve. Dad was a perfectionist and made sure that it was a perfectly shaped tree. Any gaps between the branches were filled in by drilling holes in it's trunk and inserting extra branches that he begged off the guy at the tree lot. After all us kids were in bed, Dad trimmed the tree. Only blue lights and in later years, only blue and silver glass balls and the lead icicles. Cotton was placed under the tree and a village of houses for many years arranged in it. Coffee grounds "roads" snaked through the little village.

That village was made of card board houses that came in boxes of Nabisco Shredded Wheat in the 1940's. The layers of the big wheat biscuits were separated by a piece of cardboard that the houses were printed on. You cut them out, colored or painted them and followed the directions to form them into little houses. There were many different designs. Those houses were used for many years under our tree.

I remember Christmas morning as a magical time. When we kids got up Christmas morning we were seeing the tree for the first time. The wrapped presents neatly arranged around it. Everything was fresh and 'magical' in the early morning light. I wonder if today's kids get that same magical feel.

I still have many of the old balls from my childhood. I saw nothing of Xmas till Xmas morning. The tree was put up and decorated, the little village assembled and gifts under the tree. I was blindfolded and taken to the kitchen to have a quick bowl of cereal, and then led to the living room. I must have been a very slow child to think that Santa brought the tree, all the presents, and decorated it for every child in the world!!!