My grandmother decided that she was not going to have any more live trees to decorate. She went to Lazarus one day and purchased an artificial tree.
At that time, artificial Christmas trees were still fairly new on the market. A lot of people were not accepting of them because they felt that they took something away from the holidays.
I remember coming home from school on a cold afternoon and discovering mother (that's what we called your great grandmother) putting the tree together. It wasn't green like the other artificial trees. It was white as new snow! I squealed with delight when I saw it. I thought that it was the most beautiful tree that I had ever seen. It looked like it was completely covered with snow.
Mother had assembled the tree and she promised that after dinner we would decorate it. I could hardly eat dinner that night. Daddy (that's what we called you great grandfather) had arrived home from work and he kept after me to finish eating so we could decorate our tree.
One of the things that I remember about the tree was the fibers that fell off of the branches. Every time we hung an ornament on a branch, this white fiber would fall of the branches. Our living room carpet was covered with it. It looked like it had snowed inside our home.
Our tree topper was this light up angel. We used her for years. I think that my grandmother loved that particular decoration. She had on a silver dress and a star wand in her hand. Her body had a white light bulb on the inside that would make her look illuminated when it was turned on.
Once the tree was decorated, the living room lamps were turned off. It was a sight to behold!
Some of our relatives were surprised by mother's decision not to use a live tree. She was pretty traditional in her habits. I do not recall her ever giving an explanation about why she decided to make this particular purchase. I was glad that she bought that particular tree home. I didn't know anyone else who had a tree like ours. It was a unique way to celebrate the holidays.