When I was growing up in the 1960's my parents had a silver aluminum tree like the one above with a rotating light like the one below. I wish I had a picture of that tree and I'm sure there's one somewhere but this is the best I could find on the internet. Do you know these trees are now considered vintage? And that some stores have a price of $300.00 or more for one of these babies. My sweetie tells me he remembers my parents still having that tree in the early 70's when we started dating but my memory is fuzzy on the time frame that this little beauty left the living room for good. I think it was one of those items where you either loved it or hated it.Gotta love that rotating light. LOL
So when we were married in 1976, it was my first experience with a real tree or at least that I remember. My sweetie's family has always sold Christmas trees since his Grandfather started their business and this year might be the last year for the seasonal Christmas tree sales. We used to have so much fun going and picking out our tree and so many families would come and it would be a big party of food and fun each year. But things change and we had to move from our downtown location to another one. I do love the smell of a real tree, but I don't love cleaning all the needles when we take the tree down.
So Maddie(granddaughter) and Mommy(daughter) and Daddy(son in law) came over on Saturday night to help with the tree. I think Maddie liked taking the ornaments off more than putting them on the tree. My tree is a mixture of ornaments from our 31 years together. I still have one from our honeymoon, a Mickey and Minnie ornament.
And just to show you how sick my Starbucks habit is, I even have a Starbucks ornament. I really only go maybe once a week to get my Pumpkin Spice Latte, but that's probably because there are no Starbucks close to my house. :-)
And here's the finish product. We have another little tree in the family room and I'll show that some other time. I'm trying to figure out the best scene selection with my new camera, I'm still learning about it so right now this picture was taken with the flash but I think I can get a better one without the flash. Happy Monday and have a great week!
20 comments:
My granparents had this rotating light on their tree in the 70's! Thanks for the flashback! I believe Gram didn't like the silver tree and preferred real ones, but liked that rotating light! I love your Christmas tree pointer on your blog. How did you do that?? I'm relatively new to blogland and still learning :-)
I have been doing some research on how to take good photos of Christmas lights. This site seems to have good suggestions..don't have our lights up yet, so I haven't tried it. One thing I definitely have learned is NO flash and use a tripod or other fixed surface. Good luck!
http://blog.webshots.com/?p=779
I remember that silver tree at mom and dad's. I thought the rotating light was the coolest thing ever!!
June
I remember those trees with the color wheel!
Happy Monday!
I am WAY to young to remember that tree =D
Those rotating lights would get really hot~ I have a scar to prove it.
That Maddie decorating the tree is precious.
Too funny! We were just talking about that silver tree and rotating light. I cannot remember when they got rid of it, but I did love seeing the light change colors.
Judy
As a kid, we always went out on the coldest night of the year and waited for what seemed like forever while my dad looked for the perfect tree. As a married person, we eventually ditched this tradition and bought an artificial tree. We had spent too many years being too broke to buy a tree and the year we had money, we decided to get a permanent tree (feast and famine in self employemnt). Now we are starting a new tradition. For $3 we can go out into the forest and chop down our own tree - the kids love it and we can have that fresh pine scent back in our home.
I can almost smell that beautiful tree *achoo*!!
Sorry I'm allergic to real tree's...
It is very pretty and you are blessed to be able to have one!
I remember my grade school had the aluminum tree with the rotating light in the big hallway as we walked in. Who knew they would be worth so much now!
Hope you have a warm and happy day! =)
PS...love the Starbucks ornie!!
Hi Joan,
Thanks for stopping by my blog:-).
And Thank you for sharing this wonderful story. I too remember the aluminum trees:-). Your tree is just beautiful:-). I too love the smell of the real trees. Unfortunately we cannot put one up(allergic, I break out in a horrible rash), unless hubs is willing to do all of the work (not a chance btw) *giggles*. Anyhoo just wanted to stop by:-)
Have a wonderful evening!!
Angela
Growing up we always had a real tree which I thought was the most beautiful thing ever.
When our kids were small we always went and cut a tree and made a fun day of it, but it seemed that everytime we went it rained or just had rained on the only day we could go. We went from real to a really nice artificial tree when we were in the travel business, we were always gone for the Rose Bowl game and had to leave home right after Christmas.
From then on we didn't have to worry about needles and the house getting really smelly by the time we got back home.
Now its so much easier and am looking forward to seeing Christmas in our new home.
Your tree is beatiful and I love that your granddaughter helped decorate it. I like those old tensil trees - I have one in my garage - not a vintage one, but one I ended up with. I don't use is - maybe one of these days. Take care and have a good week. Kellan
Gorgeous tree! I have a couple of Starbucks ornaments. They're fun!
I thought we discussed at Thanksgiving that Melissa and I were going to take over the tree lot?! I really can't bear the thought of it not being around anymore. Maybe with Christina and I both working at the warehouse we can breathe some life back into the place.
Some of my favorite memories are out at the tree lot, when we used to have bake sales and just run wild through the warehouse. Aww!
Beautiful! Love the starbucks ornament....I should have one of those!
Hugs!
Kat
Oh! Joan...love that silver "vintage" tree and rotating light...our neighbors had one when we were kids...and I thought it was just about the coolest thing ever...I wanted one so bad...but we always had real trees...and always made a day of finding just the perfect tree...then coming home after drinking hot chocolate from our thermos' all hyped up and ready to decorate...BUT we had to let the tree stand in water after dad trimmed the bottom...and let the limbs fall into place...seemed like a big hassle to me...to go through all that...when we could have had a big shiny silver one w/revolving light up and decorated in very little time...but NOW I get why we had a real one...and we carried that same tradition through my childrens early years until my daughter developed pretty severe allergies to them...but she's off and married now...so we may go back to a real tree...or at least have a real one every other year...when she is home.
blessings and thanks for sharing...and little Maddie is just precious...you're so lucky to have a granddaughter...
Hugs...
Teresa
I have to say, I don't ever remember having anything but a green tree. But I do know they were popular. Guess we were never hip!
Your tree is beautiful. What garland are you using??
Love,
Julie
Oh, I remember those trees too, Joan! Rotating lights and all.
Love the new do..it's very becoming. I'm sure you'll do fine with it.
Beautiful tree too, so nice to have some help with that. I don't do a real tree anymore, but i sure love the smell.
Rhoda
What a lovely tree! I love the Starbucks ornament...I've almost bought one myself several times. Now I may just have to go ahead and do it (I can justify it by saying it reminds me of my blogging friend, Joan! lol).
I wanted an aluminum tree and color wheel a few years ago for my Star Wars room. I had NO IDEA how expensive they were! You could have knocked me over with a feather when I found out. I've never even seen a color wheel for less than $60. And the REAL vintage trees are waaaaay too much money. Needless to say, the Star Wars room ended up with a regular old green tree, back when I used to put one up in there. Bummer. I thought one of those shiny ones would have been perfect for that room. lol
Merry Christmas!
Kari
Hey! How'd you get your pointer, or whatever it's called, to be a Christmas tree?
I had never seen one of those silver with rotating light trees til I married my husband, it was in the 80's and his parents were STILL using it. I cant believe there are those out there paying in the hundreds to put them back up today! We switched to pre-lit last year and this year are awfully glad we can just set it up and plug it in. Your tree is lovely.
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