If that were my tree . . . .

Our family has pretty much always celebrated the season with eclectic Christmas tree. Lots of multicolored lights, all the ornaments we own, silver icicles, sometimes even flocking were on our tree. Eclectic is what we always had and we loved the whole gaudy thing. Decorating was a walk down memory lane, seeing all the ornaments collected throughout the years, rushing to find and our hang our own personal favorites.

We deviated only once in my memory.

Sometime in the early 70s, we decided we would have a theme for our Christmas tree – we would celebrate with a blue and silver tree. It would be very wintery, almost icy. It would be so amazing to have such a cool-looking tree in the heat of an Austin, Texas, winter. We switched out all the bulbs until we had strings of blue and white lights. We shopped for new ornaments, all blue and silver. We decorated our theme tree and it was everything we had hoped. Stunning! Artistic! Beautifully modern!

The actual decorating was a little bit of a bummer because the treasured ornaments we had hung every Christmas were absent, but it was fun watching the silver and blue ornaments, the silver and white lights, and the silver icicles come together into icy beauty. We liked it!!

Grandma (Lucy#1’s mom) came to our house for Christmas that year. We always enjoyed having her with us. She was a barrel of laughs, always willing to tell us stories of her youth, always thrilled to cook us meals and do lots of Christmas baking, including her famous Mogen-David-wine-laced fruitcake.  (If you don’t like fruitcake, it’s because you never had my grandma’s fruitcake. ‘Nuff said. J)

When Grandma arrived we could not wait to show her our gorgeous blue and silver Christmas tree. She studied it for a moment, then said, “I always have red lights on my Christmas tree.”

“We usually do, too, Grandma, but this is a theme tree. We want it to be just silver and blue. Isn’t it pretty?”

“Yes, but it needs some red lights.”

She didn’t tell us we were wrong; she didn’t make fun of our silvery tree. But, every day when Grandma passed by our tree, she would say, “If that were my tree, I’d put some red lights on it.”

 

That comment’s become an in-joke for my sister and me. If something is just a little bit off, one of us will say to the other, “If that were my tree, I’d put some red lights on it.” If we see a pre-lit tree, all white lights and glittering with shiny ornaments -- “If that were my tree, I’d put some red lights on it.” Just a few days ago, I found some cross-stitched ornaments I made for my parents in 1985 or 1986. I texted a photo to my sister, with the envelope I mailed them in (which is where Lucy#1 stored them every year), saying, “Wow! Look what I found.” And my sister texted back, “If that were my tree, I’d put some red lights on it!”

Memories. They’re the best!