This tree is too tall to be used as a Christmas tree in most houses but outside it looks glorious with decorations from Mother Nature. (Photo courtesy Newcastle Historical Society Museum)
Christmas will soon be here. I already have my tree. We have a nice grove of fir trees up near our cottage and I cut one to bring home before the snow closes our road.
We always had a tree when I was growing up. My father, Elton, would keep his eye open for a good one as he worked around the farm. At the right time, he would cut it and bring it in for our living room. We also had one at our church and Sunday school, one at grange, and one in our school.
Christmas trees have been a custom of Christmas since early times. Stories do not agree but my encyclopedia claims the first Christmas tree was a young spruce or similar tree with its branches gaily illuminated with colored candles and hung with ornaments and gifts.
It claims Christmas trees are of German origin. Whatever, we here in America traditionally have a fir tree and celebrate around it.
George and I were married on June 16, 1950. Unfortunately, the Korean War began nine days later and he was drafted into the Army. As Christmas approached in 1952, we were living in a trailer park just outside of Redstone Arsenal in Alabama.
Most of the families in our trailer park were construction workers who moved from area to area for work and Army people, draftees of the Korean War, and all in our 20s. There were about 10 such couples and we were all friendly.
Mr. Keays, a fatherly figure, ran the park. It was a level area with a large cotton field just across the road from us and a little north of the Tennessee River.
Christmas was coming and we wives worried about how we could get a tree. Mr. Keays overheard us. He explained his land went further east of the park, to a wooded hill. He did not want us to take his big trees, but if we wanted Christmas trees for our trailers we could help ourselves.
But, he cautioned, you may find rattlesnakes there. He said he tried to keep the park clear of them but in his woods, they had free reign. Most of us had had no experience with rattlesnakes. Just the thought of them made us quiver, but we wanted Christmas trees.
One of the wives was from Virginia. She gave us instructions on how to walk in rattlesnake territory: “Make a lot of noise. Go slow. Wear boots. Take a long walking stick and move it back and forth across the path in front of you. Don’t go into clumps of bushes and don’t put your hand on rocks.”
Some of the couples were going home for the holidays and some were not interested in looking for live trees, but one afternoon about four of us wives started out with our long walking sticks, boots, and saws to cut the trees. We were very noisy and deliberate. About two hours later we were back with our special trees.
We stopped in to thank Mr. Keays and we told him we saw no rattlesnakes.
Mr. Keays smiled and answered. “I heard you from here. I think any defenseless rattlesnake headed for the next county when he heard you and saw you coming.”
The next Christmas, we were able to get home for the holiday. I have been able to get a tree on my land ever since.
Christmas trees have changed over the years. I began to notice that people were having tree farms where the trees were pruned before they were sold. This made a much thicker set of branches that did not have that nice sweep of a limb like the natural trees.
Also, companies were making artificial trees that the owners could pack away with their ornaments. The natural trees became known as Charlie Brown trees for the cartoon character.
I read an article in the Dec. 14, 2023 Lincoln County News by Elizabeth Walztoni, “Charlie Brown trees light up spirits in Edgecomb.” Walztoni wrote that for the past seven years the students at Edgecomb Eddy School had been putting on a Christmas program that was featuring the Charlie Brown tree. Dec. 8 would be Charlie Brown Day. The program was set on the town office lawn with natural trees donated by local men.
The teachers, town officials, and organizations around the area were working with the students. Students traveled to the town hall throughout the day to decorate. For the program, families and town’s folks came for both outside and inside entertainment.
Awards were given to all. Mrs. Santa Claus read “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” She had her reindeer, Dancer, with her. Everyone had a truly lovely time and the program for this year was already being planned. I think it has been a grand idea and somewhere Charlie Brown fans are cheering.
I remember back in the 1940s, a neighbor went out to get his tree and came back with a pine tree. Everyone made fun of him but he knew it was a pine, not the usual fir tree. He liked pine trees and enjoyed the smell of them in his home at Christmas. He had the right spirit.
So get your favorite Christmas tree whether it is a natural grown fir, a pruned tree from the local tree farm, or a plastic reusable – or a pine, if that is what you like. Decorate it the way you like, and sit around it with your family and friends and have a very nice Christmas.
