30 Days of Writing - Worst Christmas Ever

It is no doubt that our worst Christmas ever was the one that was 4 months after our fire. We were displaced and depressed and generally just avoided the holiday at all costs. So, rather then write about that time again (I did once), I'm twisting the topic, as I have tended to do, and am going to tell you about the worst Christmas TREE ever.

When I was about 5 years old, my mother decided that as we were a Jewish family, we should not have a Christmas tree in our home. Now, she and my father had both grown up with Santa and trees.It was a fun part of the season and most of our community had grown up that way. No more trees was her demand and so she got rid of all of the ornaments and such that had been part of the family celebrations. That was the end of our trees.

One year when I was about 11 and my brother was 16 or so, we heard a radio advertisement two days before Christmas. There was a Christmas tree lot in the city block next to ours. If we told them that we heard their ad on the radio, we could get a tree for a dollar. Mom wasn't home and we had a dollar.

Off we went to claim our tree. Who could resist such a fantastic offer? We walked over to the lot, selected our tree, and walked it home grinning like we had just won the lottery.

Then we had to figure out how to make this tree look festive considering that we owned no decorations for it. We were VERY inspired. First, we got a sturdy trashcan so that the tree could be in water. It leaned a little, but that is what walls are for, right? Next we set to work on decorating it. Our older sister was home from college and she had this psychedelic light box in her room. It was made with aluminum foil and those large bulbed Christmas lights that blinked in color order. We dismantled her lights, figuring that they wouldn't get any use while she was home, and draped them dramatically around the tree. I think that they went around the tree once if that.

We then started popping popcorn to string for the tree. Have you ever done this? It takes FOREVER. We ate more than we strung, but got a few feet on the tree in spite of ourselves. Much quicker to make was a ring chain out of construction paper, so that went on. Then it was time to hang ornaments. We weren't lacking in creative processes here, either. We had shopping bags from the local department stores that were decorated with all sorts of holiday images. I started to cut them out and my brother found paperclips and bent them so that the paper ornaments could be hung.

There, we had a tree in all of its glory. It was only slightly better than the Charlie Brown tree that we saw on television every year. We waited for mom to get home and see our creation.

Now, Christmas day in our home was rather unorthodox, and not just in the religious sense of the word. We had stockings and Santa gifts and when all the gifts had been opened, it was time to clean it all up and put it away. This wasn't a result of any OCD or cleanliness issues, it was because our extended family was coming over along with all of the older Jews that had no place to go on Christmas. This included our Rabbi and his wife. Our house would be filled with folks drinking and eating throughout the evening. Surely, Mom wouldn't mind our new decoration adding to the festive spirit of the day. She had to admire just how "special" our tree was.

She was more than a little shocked to see our tree and rather than banish it from the house, she let it stay. It was admired by all at the party on Christmas Day, but our mother made sure to let us know that it was not going to have a repeat performance next year.

It was an ugly tree, but one that I'll always remember.

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This 30 Days of Writing Challenge is brought to you courtesy of Nicky and Mike. They managed to convince a bunch of us to play along. If you want to read more cheesy posts, check out the ramblings of the crazy gang listed on the Linky thing at the latest post at We Work for Cheese.