Don't mess with tradition

I saw someone decorating a tree on a screened porch tonight. It's way too cold for me to even consider that, even if I had a screened porch. But it triggered a memory of a childhood Christmas because it was being decorated entirely in gold lights.

When I was pretty young, probably 5 or 6, my parents decided that we needed to be a bit more stylish with our Christmas decorating, and they took it upon themselves to upgrade our Christmas tree. It was a very 1960's idea. Up until then, we had a mishmash of decorations, lights, tinsel, and whatnot to hang on whatever tree Dad dragged home. It was wonderful, just what a tree should be. We hung foil icicles that we saved from year to year and annually fooled the younger siblings into thinking we'd cracked the TV tube or a picture window by letting one cling to it with static electricity. We had sentimental ornaments, homemade ornaments, cheesy cheap ornaments, inherited ornaments, and probably one or two new ornaments each year. We hung strings of multicolored lights, the kind you screwed in where the whole string would go out if one burned out.

The year of the stylish tree, my parents decided it needed to be all one color in its decorations. They bought a bunch of gold light bulbs (to replace the multi-colored ones), boxes of gold balls, a weird plastic type with a raised vertical seam on each bulb (billed as unbreakable), strings of gold, loopy tinsel, and I think there were even gold icicles. We couldn't put on the cheesy, mismatched decorations we were used to, and although the tree looked put together, it also looked like something that belonged in a department store.

We all hated it. At least the kids did. I don't think my parents really loved it either, but since they were into it for the cost of the bulbs, tinsel, lights, etc., they had to act enthusiastic. We weren't allowed to put on the stuff we loved, but I think I remember my older brother hiding a crummy old Santa's boot ornament somewhere in the lower branches. That Santa's boot always held the tiniest present under the tree, so how could it not be there?

We put up with that tree for that one year, and then the next Christmas there was no attempt at a gold, stylish tree. We still had tons of those stupid plastic balls, but we would use them along with the colored ones. We found a way to ruin those unbreakable balls (stomping, smashing, or packing carelessly) so eventually we didn't have to use them either. It took a few Christmases, but we managed. We never again ran out of gold light bulbs, so the strings of lights were forever after heavy on the gold, but the multi-colors were back. We returned to the bubble lights, the junky ornaments with tons of sentimental value, and reminisced with each other every year about the awful gold tree that we all hated.

Sometimes it takes a trip out of the comfort zone to make you appreciate what you have. A stylish, beautiful tree sounds good until you think about everything you need to let go to get one. My youngest son has always hung one of the ugliest, stupidest ornaments on our tree each year. It is a purple plastic Grimace that came out of a McDonald's happy meal. He always made sure it was the highest ornament on the tree, and now, more than twenty years later, we continue to do the same thing. And we wouldn't trade it for all of the Martha Stewart ornaments in the world.