While we were preparing our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday, my mother, sister, and I were sharing memories of my maternal grandmother. As I’ve mentioned before, she died when I was about six years old, so I don’t have a lot of memories like I do with my paternal grandmother.
Photo courtesy of NWW on Flickr
One memory involved my grandparents’ Christmas tree and how I could look at it for hours. I quipped that their tree took care of any curiosity about the psychedelic drugs that were so popular then. You see, my grandparents had a color wheel light that turned their white flocked Christmas tree shades of blue, green, red, and orange. Actually, I remember the tree as being a white aluminum tree but my mother and sister said it was a flocked tree. No matter, the effect was the same. I was in a trance as I listened to the motor of the light whir as it rotated the disk and saw the tree magically change colors.
I was in and out of a couple of stores that sell artificial trees last weekend. Although they were all on sale for relatively dirt cheap prices, none of them evoked a feeling of Christmas for me. I don’t know. Maybe the artificial trees just seem to “try too hard” to be as realistic looking as possible but never quite make it. An aluminum tree, on the other hand, doesn’t even try to look real. It is comfortable in its own “tin.” It doesn’t try to be something it isn’t.
For the past few years we’ve had a sapling fir tree in a pot that we dragged indoors every year. Unfortunately, the drought has taken its toll on the tree and, despite our frequent watering, it has died (our yardman unceremoniously uprooted it out of its giant pot last week and threw it into the green bucket for mulching). I can’t bring myself to bring a dried out tree that was cut weeks ago into my home (especially after we discovered that they have started spray painting trees to hide how dried out they are). But, I also can’t bring myself to buy one of those artificial trees I was looking at last weekend.
I hear aluminum trees are making a comeback. Perhaps I should omit the color wheel, though. What do you think?
What a fun post! My dad flocked a couple of trees in the 1960 timeframe, but it was messy and he didn’t continue it. I know you could find an aluminum tree. The slow-moving color wheel appeals to me, but of course, it’s your tree!
I priced some aluminum trees online. The ones I saw were in the $200 range for a new one. More important, though, is that My Honey doesn’t seem keen on the idea of one.
I’ll work on him.
How tall did you want your tree to be? Does it have to be new? I suppose you saw aluminumchristmastrees.net — or something like that. The Vermont Country Store has a color wheel, but you can probably find one cheaper. You’d think in the populated area where you live you’d be able to find a tree at a thrift store or Goodwill, etc. But — time passes, and now it’s been a few years.
Aluminum trees didn’t spell Christmas to some people, but it has a certain nostalgic appeal even for me. I say “even for me” because the ’60s aren’t my favorite nostalgia years, even though I remember them well. (Maybe that’s why they aren’t my favorite years.)
Oh, I don’t need a big one. Tabletop sized is fine with me. We’ve only done a full-sized floor tree a few times because we usually didn’t have the space or money for one.
I have seen a few at estate sales around here but they are usually out of our price range (read: What we are willing to pay). One of the big problems around here is that civilians have to compete against the movie industry looking for props. You’d think they would have all of the props they need by now, but….
I think it says Christmas to me because I was so mesmerized by my grandparents’ tree.
I have been searching estate sales for years trying to find an aluminum tree with no luck. Last spring I found a color wheel tucked back in a far corner of a closet in a sprawling estate sale house. I figured, where there is a color wheel, there must be an aluminum tree, so I spent two hours scouring every dust and allergen-filled nook and cranny of that big old house. I was sneezing and wheezing, but I kept searching, so intense was my desire for that tree. Well, I never found it, but I did uncover a lovely modern white artificial tree there which I bought for the sum of 3 dollars along with the mint condition color wheel for an additional buck. I have the white tree up, strung with white lights, and some evenings we unplug the lights and turn the color wheel on for a bit. My three year old thinks it’s wonderful.