Life in the A-Frame

Life in the A-Frame

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Silver tree, golden memories

My family and I are very sentimental about the decorations we use for Christmas. This pretty silver tree belonged to my grandparents and it is the one I remember as a little girl. It is an aluminum tree, manufactured by ALCOA, the aluminum smeltering company.My father and grandfather each worked there over 30 years. My grandfather used the aluminum paint from ALCOA to paint his house, roof, tools and outdoor furniture. I remember that my grandmother didn't particularly care for that practice. I love this tree though, and when I was little, I thought it was the most beautiful thing in the world. Now I get to display it in my home.






It is an ingenious design. It consists of a metal stand that folds, two wooden poles studded with holes, and many aluminum tinsel "branches" that stick into the holes. It takes about 3 minutes to erect.







On this silver tree, we place all our sentimentally significant ornaments. Many were hand made by the kids when they were little, or were given to them by relatives and friends. This is their favorite ornament, some kind of creature-a cat?- that moves as you pull its string. It was given to them by Mike's parents.

This star was made by me and the kids one night when we pulled out the tree, and didn't have a topper. We cut out the star from cardboard and covered it with aluminum foil.



This tree holds many things special to us. I won't show you everything because that would probably be boring to anyone but me. Everything has a story, a place on the tree and in our hearts.

5 comments:

Kristi said...

My grandparents had the exact same tree but they use to decorate with blue Christmas balls. Oh, thank you for the wonderful trip down memory lane.

Southern Comfort said...

Blue is my favorite color to go with the tree. I always use blue wrapping paper. Hope you all are doing well!

KathyB. said...

Christmas traditions really are about family and what is special to us,aren't they? I do remember people I know having aluminum trees but our families, from the Pacific Northwest and Southern Oregon always had an abundance of evergreen trees, so that is what we had. But your star, well, my father made our aluminum star for the tree I remember as a child and for many years that was the tree topper for my family. THAT brought many fond memories to me, thank-you!

Does it surprise you sometimes what your children consider the most precious items?

Dawn Marie said...

I think its very pretty. I love looking at all the ornaments that mean so much to us.

Southern Comfort said...

We used evergreen trees at home when I was little. Of course, we always picked out the largest one possible. Before I inherited the aluminum tree, we did the same here. After Christmas, we would throw it into a burn pile for a bonfire later. But, we had a problem with my daughter. She was known to go and get the dried, old tree and drag it back into the yard! That was her Christmas tree. So I started proping it against the fence and decorating it with pinecones covered with peanut butter and bird seeds. It became the January tree.