a Charlie Brown Christmas....

This is a picture from our 1944 Christmas. It may have been 1943. I was either a month old, or a year old. The sign on the board reads Merry Christmas Eddie... Santa Claus. The red car is for my brother. I don't know if it was commercially made, or if my father built it. He was talented enough, but busy... very very busy.

I've been looking for this picture for a while. I moved a bunch of stuff around earlier this year, and have been in a quandary ever since. I thought it was gone for good...

It's the tree. It's all the trees we had when I was a child. It's the original Charlie Brown Christmas Tree, skinny and a bit pathetic, covered with enough garland and tinsel to make it beautiful. Or at least presentable. It's interesting how Christmas trees have evolved. We are no longer content with the less than perfect tree, and buy them shaped and manicured and processed and planned. sigh...

For a few years at least, Santa brought the tree. It appeared (at least this is my memory) at Christmas, and was left up for a much longer time than the trees of my friends. I'm not certain when the practice stopped, but it must have been hard on my parents to keep it all from us!

I buy my trees all bundled up now. It's easier to get them up the very steep stairs at my house. I never know what is going to be under all that string, but it's certainly not going to be as charming as this tree...

but I still use lots of tinsel and garland...

just in case...