Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - The Christmas Tree

The Christmas Tree I grew up with, the one that Santa always visited - was a fake.  The individual branches were color coded and fit in a specific part of the tree.  I fondly remember my father muttering under his breath while he coaxed the boxed branches in the the shape of our magical Christmas Tree.  Then came the the light testing.  Each strand was pretested and if working correctly placed carefully on the tree.  After the lights the tinsel was added and then finally we were allowed to put the ornaments on the tree.

My husband's family had a live tree each year.  A tradition we followed for a few years.  The freshly cut tree was an arguing point for my husband and I.  He loved the smell of the tree and felt it was truly the best.  I on the other hand came from a long line of allergy sufferers and had little tolerance for the mess and the aftermath of dealing with the tree remains.  The reason we had a fake tree was my mother's allergy to pine.  Low and behold one of our children tested positive to the allergy and into our life came a fake tree so life like it still fools visitors to our house.   I am fairly certain my non allergic children will have freshly cut trees in their homes, they moaned when they found out about their sister's allergy would no longer allow us to have the fresh cut tree, I on the other hand did a little happy dance - see I am allergic to pine but always suffered because I didn't want to be a spoil sport.