Everybody who was a kid in the late 60s or early 70s, raise your hand if you remember the oh so unnatural beauty of the aluminum Christmas tree.I remember our’s fondly. It was fairly short (maybe only 5 feet tall), shiny, sparce, and hideous. But….every home had one. We had one…my father’s mother had one…my mother’s parents had one…my uncle had one…my aunt had one...
You get the picture…my family was fantastically tacky. We had metal Christmas trees. And get this…because it was unsafe to string electric lights on the metal tree, it came with a spotlight that was equipped with a color wheel. The wheel would spin around and the tree would change from a red glow, to a blue glow, to a yellow glow, to a green glow. No, it was unsafe to use electric lights on the tree but it was okay to have a 14,000 watt spotlight plugged up and sitting on the floor mere feet from the metal tree. Can anyone say burn hazard?????
So what did we hang on the metal tree that was lit up by a spotlight that could burn the retinas of a huge sperm whale? Glass ornaments, of course!!
What says Christmas more than a flaming hot, metal tree covered in glass??? Mercy!!! How in the hell did we kids ever live through a Christmas???
In case you're wondering...that is me standing beside our lovely tree in the picture. That is also the last time I wore go-go boots and a mini-skirt!!
Chick out…
*I know there is no such word as "dangerousest". :)
