By Mary Tobia

“O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, how steadfast are your branches! Your boughs are green in summer’s clime and through the snows of wintertime.”

I recently read an interesting fact that the Pennsylvania German communities brought the custom of decorating an evergreen tree to America.

The Christmas tree industry today is over a $1.7 billion business, with approximately 30 million real tree and 10 million artificial trees sold each year.

Growing up in South Dakota and coming from a hardworking dairy farm, there was not a lot of extra money to be spent on Christmas decorations. Our tree was usually very small, small enough that just one set of large bubbler lights wound their way from bottom to top. Christmas tree farms are not the normal there in the prairie as the land is used primarily for growing crops or grass land for grazing cattle. The trees were cut and shipped from a few states away so they were usually shedding needles by the time they got to us.

Our tree was certainly not something you would find in a Martha Stewart magazine, but as I think back it still brings warm memories of my childhood holidays.

When I came to Pennsylvania in 1972, I was amazed to see all the Christmas tree farms. Looking at very tiny trees that were just beginning to grow to the larger ones that were ready to be cut for the Christmas season was a beautiful sight for me. To this day I love to take rides and see them all lined up in rows.

Each Christmas we got a real fir tree. It was a tradition. When the children were younger, we made it a fun day. We would all dress warm, choose a tree and watch as their dad cut it down. They would all cheer when he made his final cut and the tree fell. We all helped to pull it back to our car and tried our hardest to secure it to the roof of our old station wagon, and off we went. Back home dad would get the tree in the stand as we would have hot chocolate, play Christmas music and the decorating would begin.

Yes, watching four youngsters helping to decorate the tree is a fond memory.

As the kids got older and the teenage years were upon us, it became harder to plan the yearly family event. They were involved in sports, friend gatherings and the like. But we still managed to get a time to all go out together. The boys would get into a tizzy over who was going to make the last cut on the tree trunk, someone would complain because it was too cold or that this was boring. No cheering when the tree fell, just, “OK, can we go home now.”

When we got the tree home, they all would go their separate directions, which left their dad and I looking at an undecorated tree. This still did not dispel my enthusiasm for our Christmas tree. Each of the kids had their own decorations to put on the tree. We would string the lights, and when they got the time, each would put up their own special ornaments.

I can still see the smiles, as no matter how old they were, they still enjoyed trimming the tree.

There was one year we almost didn’t have a tree. Our third child was taken from us in a car accident just a few weeks before Christmas. We were numb and brokenhearted. Celebrations of any kind seemed too much to undertake. That year we did put up a small tree. It was decorated with a sad heart, but we felt that we must go on.

This year we will put up and decorate our 47th Christmas tree. It is an artificial tree now, and it is just as beautiful as our real ones ever were. I do miss the fresh pine smell of the outdoors, but I don’t miss finding needles hidden in our carpet weeks later.

I look back and remember the good times of decorating the tree when our children were still home. Today we are lucky enough to have grandchildren to keep the excitement and spirit of Christmas alive in our home and heart.

“O Christmas Tree, O Christmas tree, how steadfast are your branches.”