Traditional Tree

It’s Christmas Eve. Is there a better day to talk about Christmas trees? Yes, trees, plural, as we have several. 

When I was very young, I couldn’t wait to see the Christmas tree come inside and get placed in its stand. I loved hanging the prettiest ornaments on the tree each year. The prettiest ones seemed to change from one year to the next. We had the traditional ball ornaments, with gorgeous designs, in many colours. Multi coloured mini lights were strung on every bough. An angel was nestled on the tree top, to watch over everyone. And then there was tinsel, lots and lots of tinsel. I can only describe the trees of my youth as being tinsel laden. The tinsel was saved from one year to the next. We very carefully removed it from the tree, draping it ever so delicately around a piece of cardboard, and placing it in a box. Some years, even new tinsel was added, but none ever seemed to be thrown out. Mom was the tinsel queen, slowly and deliberately placing each silver strand just right. 

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In this blog I will introduce you to our traditional tree. For many years we had a real tree, but it became more difficult to find one in the woods and get it home, and taking one from town in our small Corolla was difficult. I had to strategically place it in the car, leaving enough of an opening to see around the branches, as I drove home. We finally gave in and bought an artificial tree described as, a pre-lit Etna Pine 6′ 5”. It was indeed pre-lit for a few years, but gradually strands would stop working, but only after they were tested, worked fine, and the tree was decorated. How many times I had to un-decorate to try to find out what was wrong. After a few years of this frustration, I removed the lights and purchased new sets to put on the tree. We like the tree and although it is showing some age we don’t really want to get a new one just yet.

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Several years ago, we noticed that we had many homemade ornaments that we had either made, purchased at community sales, or had been given to us. One year we decided to use only the homemade ornaments and not put any balls or tinsel on the tree. Twenty plus years later, we continue this tradition. For a few years, we were adding pewter ornaments as well, but we soon realized we had enough to do just a pewter tree. We had also collected many sports related ornaments, mostly the Boston Red Sox, Boston Celtics, Boston Bruins and New England Patriots, with a smattering of several other teams. A sports tree was then created. It is quirky and funky and we love it. There aren’t, and never will be, any Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, or New York Yankees ornaments on our sports tree. I’ll introduce you to the pewter and sports trees in another blog.

Our traditional tree has white lights. It is topped with a gorgeous angel that Sandy (brother) gave us a long time ago. She is elegant and dressed in a Nova Scotian Tartan. We adore her. 

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The bottom of the tree is finished in Mom’s beautiful tree skirt. She appliqued several patterns of holly leaves around the edge. Amongst the leaves are red holly berries, which are made of circles of red material stuffed and pulled tightly together to form a ball. She quilted the tree skirt in a grid and at the intersection of stitching she sewed a pearl looking bead. There are 150 beads and each one is sewn on individually. At the time we had two cats and she feared they may pull one of the beads off and then the whole string would come undone. It was a labour of love. She made a few of these and only very special people got them.  (The cats never touched the beads but as soon as the tree skirt was placed beneath the tree, they would crawl underneath and lie down. )

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There are many homemade ornaments but we’ve added a few others that have special meaning to us. I picked up a couple when I was in Ireland two years ago. One is a Belleek shamrock and the other is a snowman from Donegal. I also have a lovely shamrock in the colours of the Irish flag made by my friend Gina of The White Turtle. 

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We have several glass ornaments made by Philip Walsh of Island Crystal in Albert Bridge, Cape Breton. There are candy canes, a Cape Breton kiss and a colourful icicle. 

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Some of our ornaments are items made by people in the community. One is a teddy bear made by the late Marney Urquhart. Two that were made by Ina Marshall are a Santa Claus and a mailbox. The mailbox came with two Hershey kisses in it when we first bought it. When we hang them we think of the people that made them.

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We have a crocheted bell that was used as a pew marker at my friend Susan’s wedding. 

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Mom has a ceramic map of Martha’s Vineyard, where she was born and brought up. 

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We have a reindeer made of jigsaw puzzle pieces. We enjoy jigsaw puzzles, so this is quite fitting. 

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There are plastic canvas and cross stitch ornaments that I made. 

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And many bird feeders that Mom made. We love watching the birds outdoors, so it is appropriate for us to have bird feeders, as well as birds on the tree. 

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Being avid knitters, no tree is complete without some knitting.

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We also have lots of sea creatures too.

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So many other ornaments as well. Here’s just a sampling:

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As you can see, our tree is a trip down memory lane. It’s a chance for us to remember friends and family who made, or gifted, us many of the ornaments. Many are breakable and will be carefully wrapped and stowed away until next year. Every year we seem to add one or two new ornaments, but if that continues we’ll have to start another tree.

This is tree number one of four. I’ll try to do a blog on the others in the next week or two. I’ll likely combine two together, as they are smaller and basically self explanatory.

All pictures taken by me over the past couple of years.