O'Tannenbaum

I’ve always been the one in my family pushing to put up the Christmas tree as soon as the Thanksgiving Turkey was cold.  When I was a kid, my little sister and mom would join the band wagon, while my father would drag his heals until at least after his Birthday, on the 11^th.  Now, as an adult, I’m still the same way, but now my son joins in the chorus on my side, while my husband makes excuses for delaying as long as he possibly can!

Getting the Christmas tree up has always been a bit of an adventure.  Once we finally had Daddy convinced that it really was time to get the tree, then he had to decide where the best place was to get the tree.  Sometimes this was off our own property, but often times from a local tree farm.  Of course this process included much tramping through mud to find the perfect tree. At which point poor, dear ol’ Daddy would have to get down in the muck to cut the tree by hand.  Said tree was then dragged back to the truck.

Once home, Daddy spent a good amount of time on the carport trying to wrangle the tree into a perfectly vertical position in the not-so-convenient tree-stand.  He finally got to take a break while the tree stood sheltered in the carport to dry.  This reprieve was short lived however, as his brood of women-folk were soon clamoring for him to bring the tree in.  He and mom would decide where to put the tree for the year, and he’d have to help move furniture around, usually trying a couple of different formations before it was decided that it all looked just right.  Now Daddy got to dig through the storage bins to find the Christmas tree lights, check that they all worked, and untangle them.  It was also Dad’s responsibility to get the lights on the tree before we started with the other decorations.

Finally, after hours of waiting ever-so-patiently for Daddy to FINALLY get the tree ready for us, my mother, sister and I would apply all the little ornaments to the tree.  My father would start his German Christmas Carol record (Yes, record) and we’d decorate the tree to “O’Tannenbaum”.  Daddy would sit, rocking in his chair with a cup of tea, softly singing in German along with the music, and watch as we meticulously adorned the Christmas tree.

The tree is already up at my house this year, much to my husband’s chagrin.  We do usually keep it a little simpler than it was during my childhood, by just getting our tree at the supermarket, or in really lean years, pulling out the plastic tree.  However, my husband stops at getting the tree properly placed in the stand. After that, the lights and decorations are all on me. 

I love having the Christmas tree in the living room, seeing those lights, and reminiscing about the times that each of those special ornaments represents. But I have to admit, now that most of the decorating and taking down are MY responsibility, I suddenly have a whole lot more sympathy for why my father seemed reluctant to start on this particular Holiday project.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t forgo having our own Tannenbaum for even twice the amount of work!  Aah, what a wonderful time of year!!