O Christmas Tree

By Susan W.

I think all of us have favorite things about Christmas that bring wonderful memories. I love the music and songs. “O Christmas Tree,” simple as it, is will always be one of my favorites. To hear that song, magically takes me back to when I was a child. We had brought home a real Christmas tree and finished decorating it and settled in for a comfortable evening with the family. Then, all of a sudden, we noticed that we were not alone. We had been invaded by hundreds of baby praying mantises! The tree was home to a nest of the little fellows, and they hatched when warmed up in our living room.

One of our staff, Jim P., remembers Christmas in 1969. He was a very young soldier in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Their troop consisted of youngsters, the oldest being 24 and the youngest being 17. They were a long way from home. They had been shot at all week. One of them came up with the idea of having a Christmas tree. There were no plants around there that looked anything like a Christmas tree, so they decided to make one. Twigs, bits of uniforms, aluminum cans, all went into building their tree. They decorated it with buttons, pins, anything and everything they could find. He said it was the strangest looking “tree” he had ever seen, and most would have called it ugly but he still has a picture of that Christmas tree, and remembers it more than any other.

The Library has both music and musical scores of Christmas music. O Christmas Tree is included on these:

CD HIT Main New age Christmas: a tribute to Mannheim Steamroller
786.2172 Main The Definitive Christmas collection
J783.65 SIL Main Silent night : a Christmas carol sampler
CD JFRO HANGING BAG Main Frosty's sleigh ride party 24 songs & stories.
CD J COU HANGING BAG - 2 CDs Main Christmas is for kids!
CD J CHI HANGING BAG - 1 CD Main Christmas with the Chipmunks by Alvin, Simon & Theodore with David Seville.