Dec 28, 2003 9 min read

At Christmas time, a dark green, 7-foot tall package, brimming with history, occupies a special place in many homes. It is the family Christmas tree, glistening with ornaments that have fascinating stories behind them, loaded with decorations rich in family traditions just waiting to be handed down. You can add to your children’s knowledge of your family history by telling them the stories of the special ornaments on your Christmas tree, those timeworn ones that hang unnoticed among the glitzy modern bulbs and decorations.

“In the ’40s and ’50s,” Penn-Craft native Lois Artis Marks remembered, “we always had a fresh-cut tree. We would put up the tree the week before Christmas, with an angel on top, multi-colored lights, and old balls that we saved and wrapped for the next tree. We put angel hair all over the tree, and the lights shined through beautifully. It was magical just to sit and look at the lighted tree in the evenings.”

Ah, those lovely multi-colored lights . . . could be a pain!

“Our tree had the kind of string lights that when one light went out, they all went out,” lamented Bill Johnson of Olean, N.Y., formerly of Bull Run Road. “What a job to find the burned-out light or two!”

“My father hung the lights on our tree,” said Nancy Campbell Bender, who grew up on Prospect Street, “then we all helped decorate the tree. We had many pre-war beaded ornaments from Czechoslovakia, some of which we still use in our own homes today. There was also gold tinsel, though not the synthetic stuff one buys today. This was made of a genuine metallic material, and although it has tarnished and congealed over the years, we still have some of it and use it!”

In addition to old-fashioned tinsel, readers remember other traditional types of decorations.

“We lived on Cadwallader Street in the mid-1940s,” said Darlene Johnson Widmer, “and our tree was always decorated with candy canes and popcorn balls wrapped in brightly colored cellophane.”

“My sister and I,” added Jennie Abbadini of Brownsville, “would string popcorn and make paper chains from construction paper to help decorate the tree.”

And do you remember the “flocked” trees?

“I was born in 1952,” recalled Second Street native Jan Rowe, “so I’m remembering the 1950s and 1960s, when ‘flocked’ trees were popular. Some came already sprayed with artificial snow. Our family’s trees were sprayed by my mom or older sister Karen. Some ornaments that I still have bear traces of this snow.”

Of course, at one time all Christmas trees were natural, but by the 1960s silver-colored artificial trees began to appear. Who can forget that revolving plastic disk that projected blue, yellow and red light on the reflective aluminum needles?

“Our silver artificial tree had blue bulbs,” remarked Telegraph Road native Darla Walker Pichard, “and a light under the tree that turned, shining different colors on it. My brother and I loved that tree, and when my mom and dad wanted to get an artificial green tree, we were upset because it would not seem like Christmas without our silver tree!”

Over the years, the types of trees have changed and the ornaments have too. Rare is the tree nowadays that is decorated with those large, hot-burning multi-colored lights, chain links made of construction paper, strings of threaded popcorn, angel hair, or spray-on snow. Yet whether the tree you remember was green or silver, real or artificial, on the floor beneath its boughs was often found a miniature village, an electric train, or both.

“After my grandmother’s tree was completely decorated,” recalled Kim Snyder Davis, who grew up in Blainesburg, “Grandma would get out the Christmas village that she had made in ceramics class. She and only she could put the cotton down to make the snow. She would arrange the lights, village and people under the tree while I sat there, watching and listening to the stories of how and when she made each particular piece.”

An integral part of many under-the-tree villages was an electric train, just as real trains were essential in the life of a typical American small town. This tradition, still popular, has been around for a long time.

“I was born in 1930,” remarked Bill Johnson, “and in the 1930s and 1940s, we always had a 3-track electric train under the tree.”

“The train in our under-the-tree village was such fun to watch,” added Darlene Widmer. “My dad made a barn, some houses and a tunnel to go along with the train set, and we would watch the train go around the tree for long periods of time. It was so much fun, just lying there and pretending to be riding the train through the village.”

Nancy Bender told me that her first birthday present, a Lionel electric train, “was soon transferred to my brother, Scott. The train layout became more elaborate each year with villages, mountains, bridges and smoke-blowing locomotives.

Scott and my dad always had a friendly competition with the Alan Taylor family as to who had the best train layout.”

Protecting those under-the-tree villages and train layouts from unexpected disaster was and still is a challenge, particularly in households with small children or pets.

“We have a large Christmas village and train under the tree,” says Jennie Abbadini, “and we also have a 70-pound chocolate Labrador retriever named Holly. She has never bothered the tree or the train, but she repeatedly knocks an elderly couple off their bench at the edge of the Christmas village every year!”

Larry Beck of Blainesburg has taken the Christmas train concept to a “higher” level.

“Last year was the first time that I put a train IN the tree!” Larry informed me. “The little ‘N gauge’ train goes in one direction among the branches, while the tree, decorated with many moving ornaments, rotates in the opposite direction.”

Enjoying creatively trimmed Christmas trees was a wonderful feature of holiday visiting, but even fresh-cut Christmas trees could only stay fresh for a short time.

The danger of fire from a dried-out tree always lurked in the thoughts of Mom and Dad, so New Year’s Day was often selected for the task of undecorating the tree. Ornaments were carefully removed from the branches, wrapped individually in tissue paper, and packed into boxes where they would wait patiently in the closet, attic or garage until called upon next December to reawaken the spirit of Christmas past.

With its brown-tipped needles beginning to drop to the floor, the once-beautiful Christmas tree, stripped of its lights, ornaments and tinsel, was suddenly forlorn and unwanted. Yet for some Christmas trees, New Year’s Day wasn’t the end of the line. Occasionally, one would be granted a “second life.”

“Our tree was taken down just before the Russian Orthodox Christmas,” said Bill Johnson. “We placed it out in the front yard for someone to take for their Russian Christmas, and it was always picked up by someone. I remember several times when someone came to the door to ask for our discarded tree.”

“Normally, our tree stayed up for a week or so after Christmas,” added Nancy Bender, “but Christmas 1945 found it staying up until February 1946, when my dad finally returned home from Europe, where he served with the American Red Cross in World War II. By the time he got home, our Christmas tree was bare and brown – and beautiful. We never had a happier Christmas.”

Ruth Chambers Banks of Cokeburg recalled a similar experience.

“One year when my brother, William Alva Chambers of Brownsville, was in the Navy, he could not get leave for Christmas, and he asked me if I would keep my Christmas tree up until he could get home on leave.

“Well, by the time he got home weeks later, all of the needles had fallen off the short-needled tree, the branches were sagging and the decorations were mostly lying on the floor.

“The only gifts still under the tree were for my brother, and they were covered with pine needles, icicles and fallen decorations.

“A friend of mine came to visit. When she walked into the living room and saw our tree, she began to laugh hysterically.

“Needless to say, when my brother came home three weeks after Christmas and saw the tree, he thought it was really funny too. But he really appreciated that I had left the tree up for him.

“Thanks for jogging my memory and bringing back a Christmas that I will never forget,” Ruth said. “My dearly loved brother passed away three years ago, and so this has been a bittersweet memory for me.”

The discarded Christmas trees of Brownsville area families were often placed out in front yards, where on the Saturday morning after New Year’s Day, they were picked up by the community’s volunteer firemen. That Saturday night, the whole town was invited to a massive bonfire in the grassy parking area in front of old Brownie Stadium. The fire department-supervised bonfire was held to discourage individuals from burning their own trees in their back yards, a potential fire hazard.

The bonfire always drew a big crowd on a cold winter night, and the firemen served hot dogs and marshmallows to the hundreds of residents who showed up to witness the huge blaze. As the spectators talked quietly and watched the sparks from the crackling mountain of burning Christmas trees fly high into the night air, they each understood that they were witnessing the holiday’s final act. The curtain was falling on another wonderful Christmas season.

When the flames finally subsided and the once-huge mound of trees was reduced to a glowing pile of embers, the residents headed for the warmth of their homes. The most festive season of the year was over – and a long stretch of winter lay ahead before the sighting of the first robin of spring.

Glenn Tunney may be contacted at 724-785-3201 or by writing to 6068 National Pike East, Grindstone, PA 15442. Comments about these weekly articles may be sent to Mark O’Keefe (Managing Editor-Day), 8-18 E. Church St., Uniontown, Pa. or e-mailed to mo’keefe@heraldstandard.com. All past articles are on the Web at http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~glenntunneycolumn/