Christmas Past

What is the earliest Christmas you can remember?   I do not remember  individual Christmases.    I remember The decorations on the tree.   The earliest were lights that were of the 9v size that would fit in the electric candle holders, my parents have some metallic star shaped forms that you had to take the bulb out and the form fit on the light with the base near the fitting.  They had a smaller inner layer of some sort of colored insert on the inside of the silver form.   It was pretty, next I can remember the bubble lights and how the would really bubble when the got warm, they were shaped like thing candles.  .

My father must have pitched those things after my mom died because when he died and we went thru things we did not find any of them..   He kept a lot of things but the things that would have brought big bucks at the Antique Store he must have thrown away.

Then sometime in the late 50's came the silver aluminum tree.  It was about six foot tall and the pine needles were aluminum and about three inches long.   We had colored glass green bulbs and a rainbow  four colored revolving color diffusing device that was set in front of a bright light so that the colors rotated slowly and the light would change with the revolutions.  My dad had a three piece raised platform made of plywood and he would set up the Lionel Train set and there was a small village with many house, trees, people who lived under the tree.   Also  was placed the Nativity Set.   My grandmother had purchased it a long time ago.   It was made from paper mache and was from Oberammergau Germany.    I still have the set but a lot of the pieces have been broken and one of the wise men has lost his head.   It has been glued several times but it still falls off. 

For a number of years I have perused Antique Stores and looked on Ebay but still have not found any like them.  

My mother told me of one Christmas when she was a child.   The German tradition was to put and light candles on the Tree.   Well, her parents did that and one of the candles tipped and set the tree on fire.   She remembered the fire and guessed that her Father had put the fire or either the tree out/outside.   Wish I could find the answer to that, I know the house did not burn.

Now we have a collection on ornaments from Chucks grandparents and assorted ones I have collected over the years.   What surprised me were those old ornaments are going for big bucks in the antique stores....