Over the past many years, our Christmas trees have been symbols of family traditions and reflected our home spaces and life stages.
Of course, our trees had to be live trees when our family was young, and the boys helped us choose the “perfect one” every year. As time went on the annual tree became taller, with Tim on a ladder putting ornaments on top and Lorelie, Paul and Karl decorating as high as they could reach. We were careful to place unbreakable ornaments on bottom tiers of branches so the cats could play!
A fter our move to a condo, we still kept the big tree tradition for a couple of years with the theme of angels and musical ornaments.
After we bought a mountain cabin as a second home, our Christmas tree focus changed. We did not have indoor space for a big tree, but we had access to live trees for cutting.
We enjoyed many tree cutting experiences, from an expedition with neighbors to find a noble fir in high country to choosing one of our own Grand Firs for Karl’s family to cut and decorate outside.
Although we recently moved from a condo to a house we still don’t have a room that welcomes an eight foot tree. We have adjusted to the space in both our homes. We have small artificial trees stored each year, fully decorated and covered with large plastic bags. These themed trees are covered with angels,or musical instruments; we even have a Norwegian tree!
At times we still miss our big Christmas trees, so we visit our son Karl, four houses away. He has themed trees in several rooms and we enjoy all of them!
May the Christmas tree, a symbol of light and tradition, bring smiles to your face as you remember past holidays and anticipate future holiday seasons!
We only have four trees this year… feels like we just gave up. Oh wait!! We have two more in the garage to put on the porch…. Whew!