I have a tree of generations.
What is that exactly? Well a tree of generations is something that has become sort of a make shift heirloom in the sense that it's been handed down from generation to generation, Mother to Daughter.
It's an artificial Christmas tree that stands about six feet tall. It has survived floods, blizzards, bitter cold and children. My family had a tradition that we would all go over to my grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. This tree was there, decorated and ready for Santa-grams to pile present, in, under and around.
Grams had a small house and by the time she was done Christmas shopping it became even smaller. With only four grandchildren we could want for nothing. But regardless of how many gifts we had, we all loved looking at her tree. She had ornaments hanging on it from all of the grands and some that were much much older.
She would decorate it and top it with an angel and take joy in knowing that in a few short days, hell would break loose with the grand children and wrapping paper. And she loved it.
Then came the time when my dad was out on the road and mom couldn't get a real tree. I don't remember the actual reason why, but either way it the first year we didn't have a real Christmas tree. Grams decided that same year she wanted a smaller tree because it was becoming too much to haul up from the basement, put it together and decorate it by herself.
Grams got a smaller tree, we got the tree that we grew up with in Grams' house.
Of course being one hell of a rebel back in the days of my youth, I hated the tree. I wanted a real one. I enjoyed watching my father put a too large tree in the stand of ages and getting it to stay up "some how" whether it was with it leaning on the wall slightly or held up with fishing line. It was tradition. It was ALSO traditional for that same tree to fall on my father at least once while putting it. Something that would piss him off to no end but would cause everyone (namely my brother and I) to crack up.
After that first year and my mother seeing just how much easier it was to have an artificial tree, and how much money she saved in the end, she made the financial decision to get an artificial tree. However, she held on to the tree of generations.
When my son was born, I didn't have much money, and was fretting about getting a tree. That's when mom told me she had the tree from Grams' house and that it was mine if I wanted it. Of course i did. At that point I didn't care if I had a real or fake tree, I just needed a tree and some lights. I had a baby to impress.
And he sure was impressed. Each year, I drag it out and set it up. Kidlet will help me decorate it, and the cats will help too. But they mostly just like to climb it. Either way, I love my tree and I look forward to being able to pass it on to kidlet who will be the fourth generation to receive it (if it makes it that long.)
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| Kidlet showing off the tree 2011 |
