Advent Calendar: Me and The 1960 Christmas Tree

Me (Teresa) Age 5 December 1960

Not a great picture, but I wanted to show off the scrapbook page I made of myself in front of our small tinsel Christmas tree in December 1960.  For some reason we almost always had artificial trees when I was growing up, I'm not really sure why, but it didn't take away from the magic of the season.  This particular Christmas I remember vaguely.  I had a new four month-old baby brother, Ted who I was not too fond of since I had been the only child for five years.  I remember the house we lived in - it was a small, new, two bedroom house.   It is still there on the outskirts of town and occasionally when I go home to visit my parents I will drive by it, but I don't really have a lot of memories from that house.

I'm sure my Mom probably put up the tree as my Dad worked a lot of hours, maybe that is the reason for such a small, artificial tree.  Every year we followed the same tradition; Christmas Eve we went to my maternal grandparent's house -  Grandma and Grandpa Smith to open presents.  Then on Christmas day after opening our presents at home we would drive out to the country to the old family farm in Bonnie, IL to my paternal grandparent's Grandma and Grandpa Wilson.  There all my cousins would converge and we would spend a grand day opening presents, playing games and eating a big dinner.

I guess in a child's mind it's not the size of a tree or how it's decorated, but the promises of treasures to come and the memories it leaves behind.