Christmas tree traditions have changed over the years
Today’s article by Glenn Tunney is the first of a two-part series that originally appeared in the Herald-Standard in December 2003. When did it end? When did the tradition of Santa Claus decorating the Christmas tree while the children lie asleep in their beds disappear? Is there a family somewhere in which the children still awaken on Christmas morning and get their first look at their family’s gloriously decorated Christmas tree?
I suspect that the tradition of Santa decorating the tree suffered a major setback with the introduction of the artificial Christmas tree. Those ersatz evergreens provided new flexibility, as families could decorate them the day after Thanksgiving without risking having a brown, dried-up tree by Christmas Day.
Many families still elect to go the natural route though. The experience of choosing that “perfect” evergreen has become one of some families’ special holiday events, with the entire family going along to help Mom and Dad make the big decision. When Ken Davis of Richmond, Va., was a young boy, he lived on Davidson’s Siding Road with his parents, Floyd and Gertrude Davis. Ken has never forgotten the Christmas of 1948, when he greatly disapproved of his parents’ choice of a Christmas tree.
“Too young then,” Ken said, “and too old now, I cannot remember the name of the fruit market, later called Hilltop and then Frank’s, where we bought our tree. Its makeshift tree lot extended up the slope from the building toward the intersection of Routes 40 and 166.
“I remember the wind blowing from the water tower and across Route 40, blasting snow straight into our faces as we shopped for a tree. Every tree was tested by a thud of the base onto the frozen reddog, which added to the maelstrom.”
Floyd and Gertrude finally selected a tree, and 4-year-old Ken was devastated with their choice.
“For six inches, the spruce had decided to grow two tops!” Ken stared in horror. “I didn’t want our Christmas tree to resemble a sling-shot!”
His protests were ignored, Ken recalled, and after the tree spent a few days on the Davis’ back porch, “the day of abomination arrived. My father proudly secured the tree with cross-sticks nailed to the trunk, and he immersed the cut end, with sand, rocks and water, into our spare coal bucket. I was in tears again, with the ugly silhouette casting demonic shadows against the wall.
“The tree was almost completely decorated before my mother, attempting to place that gold thingy with a spire and a ball-base that everyone in Brownsville in the ’40s used as a tree-top ornament, made an astonishing discovery.
“‘Our tree has two tops!’ she announced in surprise. And of course, unable to contain my week-long pent-up frustrations, I shouted, ‘That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!'”
Floyd solved the problem in a flash.
“My father quickly got the butcher knife, cut the smaller of the tops, and bent up the survivor. The gold thingy displayed very well.”
The perfect Christmas tree is hard to find, as Charlie Brown will attest. Since nature is rarely symmetrical, there is an art to positioning one’s undecorated tree to its best advantage before hanging the first ornament. Time-honored technique requires that someone must turn the tree endlessly, trying to find a position that will conceal the glaring bare spot which, despite careful inspection at the tree lot, no one noticed until now.
That lucky tree turner was usually Dad.
“Dad would be lying on the floor,” remarked South Brownsville native Jan Rowe, “half under the tree, turning it and getting hit in the face with branches as my mother decided which position was best. This was usually good for an argument.”
Positioning the tree was not the only challenge to be met. Timing was important, too. If you put up the tree too early in the season, someone stretching to reach a gift under the tree on Christmas Day would be pelted with dry pine needles from above. To avoid such an avalanche, the journey to the tree lot was usually put off until the week before Christmas.
“To purchase our Christmas tree, we walked back the narrow, arched brick walkway by Sheehan’s Market on Market Street,” recalled Nancy Campbell Bender of Grindstone. “My father, Ralph, would take us kids with him to help choose the tree. In later years, I remember that he took us into the woods somewhere to cut our own, which was an adventure of another sort.”
“Each year after I had my daughter in the early ’80s,” commented Jennie Abbadini of Brownsville, “my husband and I would take her to AJ’s Christmas Tree Farm to cut down the perfect Christmas tree. Regardless of the weather, be it rain, snow, sunshine or ice storm, we walked the woods in search of the perfect tree.”
“I remember going out each year and cutting a tree the day before Christmas,” Joanne Peet of Poland, Ohio. “We would bring it back to our Brownsville home and set it up undecorated. Then we would all be given new matching pajamas and sent to bed to wait for Santa. The next morning when we came down the steps in our new pajamas, we would see the lighted, decorated tree for the first time.”
Santa Claus had decorated the tree during the night. Since in those days Santa was not burdened with sacks full of computers, exercise machines and DVD players, perhaps he had more time to decorate a few million Christmas trees during the eight hours or so allotted to him.
Former West Brownsville resident Ross Snowdon says Santa never missed decorating the tree at his house. “In the 1920s,” Ross told me, “I lived with my mom and dad on Railroad Street in West Brownsville. It was the custom to not allow the children to see the Christmas tree until Christmas morning. The tree was kept hidden in the coal bin until dad brought it up for trimming, after the kids went to bed. Our tree had candles for lights. When the candles were lit, dad was with them all the time so the tree would not cause a fire.”
Ross tried to keep that family tradition alive, but fate intervened.
“My wife and I carried on the tradition of Santa trimming the tree (not with candles), but when our daughter was about three years old, she visited a neighbor a few days before Christmas. She saw their decorated tree with presents under it, and she developed a bad case of hives from disappointment that Santa had missed stopping at our house.
“After that, we no longer waited until after she went to bed to trim the tree or put wrapped gifts under the tree. We began the tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve, which made our daughter happy, and we have continued that practice ever since.”
West Brownsville native Jim McAndrews echoed Ross’s experience.
“When I was a young boy in West Brownsville,” Jim explained, “the tree was on the front porch, but it was never put up until the kids had gone to bed. We had a round wreath on the door and a stack of candles in the window, and when we came downstairs on Christmas morning, the tree was completely decorated and the presents were under the tree.”
“On Christmas Eve,” added another West Brownsville native, Darlene Johnson Widmer, “my brother Rick and I would go out on the back porch and watch my dad place the fresh tree in its holder. We were allowed to stay up to watch him place the tree in the corner of our living room, but then we had to go to bed.
“Santa Claus always trimmed our tree,” Darlene continued, “so Christmas morning was extra exciting for us. I remember so well the fragrance of the pine as we crept down the stairs to see what Santa had brought us. It must have been around 6 a.m., because it was still dark outside.
“Santa always had beautiful silver icicles adorning the tree, along with candy canes and popcorn balls wrapped in brightly colored cellophane. We had a special angel that was placed on the treetop, and the tree always had multicolored lights which looked so beautiful with the icicles.”
When Santa visited the Union Street Extension home of W. James “Whiz” Mountain, he must have had his arms full. Santa even brought the tree!
“When I was growing up in the 1930s,” Whiz told me, “Santa brought the tree, decorated it and placed the wrapped presents under the tree. I will never forget the awe of waking up and going downstairs to view such a spectacular presentation. It was truly magical!”
Is Santa Claus still in the tree-decorating business? I fear this may be one quaint custom that has fallen victim to modern times.
Some of the well-worn ornaments that decorate the family Christmas tree have stories behind them, and they are often the catalysts that spur older family members to pass on family holiday stories to the younger generation. I invite you to join me again next week as more of our readers share their family’s Christmas tree traditions. To all of my readers, I extend my sincere wish that you will enjoy a Merry and Memorable Christmas!
Comments about these articles may be sent to Editor Mark O’Keefe, 8 – 18 E. Church St., Uniontown, Pa., or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com