Skip to main content

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories -- The Christmas Tree

The Carter Christmas Tree, 2003
Our family has always had an artificial tree. Allergies . . .

Over the years our family's Christmas tree took on various shapes and sizes. My first tree was given to me by my grandfather, Mark Silverman. The two-foot tree made of silver tinsel boughs came with small, blue, glass balls to hang on them . . . sort of a Hannukah bush.

When our first child was born in 1984, I ordered a four-foot tall artificial spruce tree from the JC Penney Catalog along with wooden ornaments. In 2003, our daughter asked, "Why is our tree so small?" Dad answered, "Because when we got it you were so small! We didn't want you to get overwhelmed by it." So that year we replaced it with this six-foot tree. After the death of our youngest child in 1990, we went to the Yankee Candle factory store in Deerfield, MA and each selected an ornament that reminded us of her, which are displayed on this tree along with some of the original ornaments.

Now that my husband and I have moved the nest from Western Massachusetts to Western North Carolina, we put up a Thomas Kinkade Nativity Tree in the living room. My husband first pulls the box out of his den closet, sets it down on the living room floor, and then places the tree on a stereo speaker. "Oh, I'm exhausted from that chore," he jokes. But the HO train set his father gave him as a boy still goes around the base of the tree . . . or should I say, around the base of the stereo speaker.

First Presbyterian Church, Galveston
When I was a child, though, the tree I always loved the best was the Chrismon Tree in our church sanctuary. There was always a Saturday Christmas Craft Day when children and adults would meet in the recreation hall to make giant pine cone Christmas trees, wreaths and a variety of ornaments. The following Sunday was the Hanging of the Greens service, and the Advent Wreath with its three purple candles, one pink and a white Christ candle in the center was displayed at the altar. The Chrismon Tree stood on the right side of the sanctuary by the choir loft.

The members of Women's Society of Christian Service (WSCS) at Vestal United Methodist Church, Vestal, NY had made ornaments called Chrismons by decorating symbols cut from styrofoam with pearls, glitter and gold beads. Each shape represented an aspect of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. At church the tree and the greens were real . . . the evergreen being a symbol of eternal life.

Comments

  1. Root DiggerDecember 6, 2011 at 2:14 PM

    What lovely memories...Thank you for sharing this one with me. :-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Honoring our Ancestors: Free Black Patriots of the Revolutionary War

When I was first contacted last October to assist in some research for a member of the DAR who was looking for the burial ground of her ancestor, Isaac Carter, I had no idea it would lead to such a wonderful tribute--with full honors--to our free black ancestors of Craven County, North Carolina. Nor would I have guessed that I would be meeting together with Ms. Maria William Cole, National Vice Chairman Insignia, of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and a host of other dignitaries, from the highest officials of the SAR to state and local political and community service leaders, to pay tribute to these patriots. The turnout exceeded my expectation when this event proceeded on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon, with close to a hundred and fifty people or more, seated on folding chairs under three canopy tents. The microphone cable lay along the wet grass and soon died out, and we, the speakers, were asked to use our "mother's voices" to make o
7 comments
Read more

How Family History Writing Forces Us to Dig DEEPER

February is Family History Writing Month During the month of February, I went on hiatus from the Civil War Pension File of Isaac Carter in order to participate in the Family History Writing Challenge. My goal was quite ambitious, but I did succeed in setting up the framework of the family history memoir, and wrote a rough draft of the opening scenes. The memoir focuses on a promise I had made to our Cousin Hattie Carter Becton in an interview, following the the 2009 George Family Reunion in North Harlowe, North Carolina. In case you missed the Challenge, you can find the posts here . The site was developed especially for writing challenges, beginning with this year's; so, you may want to go back to the first posts in the archive. March was memoir reading, research & development month Last month I continued working on the writing, but also began focusing on webinars and YouTube videos related to writing memoir. Two really great sites are National Association of Memoir Writ
8 comments
Read more

Those Places Thursday -- Robert Livingston House, Little River, SC

In July of 2008 we attended the Prince Livingston Family Reunion in Wampee, Horry County, South Carolina (my husband's maternal family). During our down time we decided to take a drive through Little River where the plantation owner, Robert Livingston, had once lived.  We inquired at the Visitor Center, and learned that the Robert Livingston House had been preserved as an historical landmark. The brochure we received listed several different sites that interested us, but the Livingston House was our first destination.  We drove along Highway 17S and drove past the turn off for Lakeside Drive. At the next light we turned around and headed back down the highway until we came to the street. About two-thirds of the way down the road we saw a sign along the roadside: 19th Century Victorian Home for Sale. Was that the house? The number on the mail box was 4441. That's it! We got out of the car and looked around only to find that the owner was at home, and he was in the process
Post a Comment
Read more