Bright Ideas

When we lived on the farm, my dad would always cut our tree from a forested hillside. The sizes varied with the years. Our old farmhouse had 10 ft. ceilings, and one year the tree he harvested touched the ceiling. Mom and dad started stringing the lights; they ended up using the larger, outdoor lights closer to the bottom. It took every ornament we had.

We only put up the tree on Christmas Eve, and it stayed up well into the new year. By waiting until Christmas Eve, the kids had something to do while their Christmas enthusiasm crescendoed.

I have an aunt and uncle who were just as late in putting up their tree. I don’t know if they still put up a tree; their grandson is a junior in college. Even if our grandchildren weren’t in grade school and preschool, I’d want a Christmas tree.

We used to harvest a tree from the Kenny Schultz property. One year J.O. Tooke kindly brought one to town for us. We ultimately changed to a good looking, pre-lighted artificial tree. It was tall and took up much of the space in our small living room.

As time marched on, we gave our daughter the big tree and now own a four and a half foot one that stands on the table in front of the living room window. It’s not very big and my husband puts it on a timer so the lights go on at 7 a.m. and turn off at 10 p.m. It is lighted all day for me.

If you have a tree or just memories of trees, I hope they shine brightly for you.