Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Merry Christmas - Reflecting

Many times Christmas includes time for reflecting on favorite family customs of our youth.  Sometimes they might be a little quirky. Sometimes the memories are sketchy. For instance, Do you ever wonder what happened to a certain stuffed animal, your brother’s train set or those story book dolls that you and your sisters collected? I do. But, I guess they each just phased out naturally. There time was over  You know, they just seem to have been there for a while and then disappeared.  Poof!
One of those temporary traditions that I was reflecting on recently is the silver aluminum Christmas tree.  Remember the color wheel that reflected changing colors on the tree?  This one makes me smile for several reasons.   We had Aluminum Christmas treeone in the 1960s. I remember it perfectly.  I can’t find any photos of ours. But I can see it in my mind, placed in the front picture window of our home on South New Jersey in Indianapolis.. (Google images provides this one.)  The memories are a little cloudy on how long this beauty stayed with us.  And, to add to this memory, we did have another – live – Christmas tree that we setup in the family room.
Isn’t it a little strange that we had a silver aluminum tree with rotating colors?  How did that seem like a good idea?  Or why add a second tree to the family home? Or why would one or both of my parents like the idea of dealing with both trees, decorations, setup, etc?   Sometimes things just are what they are.  No reason.
But wait….Maybe we were “cool”, having the trendiest thing. No, that’s not it.  I guess the reflection of the green, red, blue and yellow on the silver tree was mesmerizing, and maybe soothing.  We could see the lights down the hallway, casting the festive colors in other parts of the house.    
Wow!   After “reflecting” more closely on this temporary tradition, it wasn’t really that strange! 
Hope you come across a good Christmas memory…even if it seems a little quirky….until you reflect a little more.
Wishing you a very nice Christmas!!!

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