My first Christmas trees were at my grandparent’s in Western Michigan. They got their trees from a tree farm south of town. We two kids were titillated as the farmer used coarse language, words that would never be heard or used in our household.   

The Christmas trees of my youth were always ‘real’ and of the Douglas fir type. There usually was a challenge to get it to stand up without wobbles. Mother didn’t like the feel of the needles, so father would wind the lights around the tree. We used the big screw-in the bulb types. It was my task to make sure identical coloured bulbs were not near by each other.  (These old bulbs still reside in their container – a vintage KFC bucket with the colonel dressed as Santa Claus.)

After the lights came the bulbs, a collection of heirlooms, whatever was newly purchased, and the ones the kids made in school or at church.Later, we kids would get a “kid’s tree”, a very crude artificial tree that fooled nobody, on which we hung all the homemade ornaments. It was a genuine Charlie Brown tree - it was tacky, but lovely in its sincerity.  

About 10 years ago mother started bringing up the ‘A’ word – Artificial. She thought it would be easier. The grown up children living away were horrified – we wanted everything at home to stay the way it was, and an artificial tree was the first sign of the Decline of the Roman Empire. But in the end she got one – it goes in the front hall with all her felt ornaments and it looks lovely. Most years they get a real tree for the living room too.  

When I first had my own house in Chicago, buying a tree to decorate for myself seemed a bit of a waste – besides I went home at Christmas time. But in the end I bought a tiny tree from the nearby expensive city lot. It was decorated with what few bulbs I had – mostly cheap store bought ones and a few precious items pinched from home.  

Living with Someone meant combining traditions and ornaments. Someone likes a different sort of tree. And his ornaments were different than my own. We had to stop using tinsel as the dumb cats would eat it; we missed the tinsel.

During the 5 years we lived in Michigan we did the yearly pilgrimage to Frankenmuth to obtain new things, and eventually we had enough ‘our tree’ ornaments. 

Then we moved to Arizona.  A live tree doesn’t last too long out here what with heat and no humidity. In the first year we were determined to get a real tree. It worked, but there was a lot of work to keep it hydrated. We got an artificial tree, purchased the day after Christmas.  It was opened for the first time last Christmas. I am still not quite sure of it – perhaps it is 40 years of tradition being challenged– you unfold the thing and plug in all the bits. Instant tree. We’ve learned to put a lot of colour onto the tree or it looks too white and bright. We will see how it fared over the summer. Do the lights go out as frequently as the strand lights? Shudder.  

I wonder if we will evolve to the point of ‘no tree’. Will it all become too much effort and not enough time and (worse) no interest to set up a tree?