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Kim Franke-Folstad

Published: December 11, 2007

My mother had a vision for her Christmas tree.

Blue lights. Blue ornaments. And white flocking sprayed thick on each shapely bough.

So my parents spent their first December as a married couple searching for the freshest Frazier Fraser fir. They scoured store shelves for shiny blue glass balls. They bought strands of multicolored lights and swapped them out until all the bulbs burned blue.

Pretty, and pretty tony, they thought, particularly for newlyweds on a budget in 1954. Until my mom's younger cousin came over for Christmas and tugged on her mother's skirt. "Are they poor?" she asked. "They only have blue lights."

Mom was a little miffed, but she decided, two years later, that a child's tree really should have more color. For my brother's first Christmas, they added green, red and white lights. And by the time my twin sister and I were old enough to handle a wire hook, the trees we helped decorate were a mishmash of our kiddy kitsch and my parents' last gasp of class. Those delicate glass ornaments were still around, but we preferred the homemade Santas and reindeers we created from pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks and Styrofoam.

Even when we all grew up, my parents kept our tacky treasures on display. I imagine Mom started out with a box packed full of them and whittled them down each year as we left home, as the Styrofoam cracked, as the pipe cleaners shed their bristles.

She still has a few, though, including a couple of old Santas, nearly 50 years old now, with yellowed cotton-ball beards. And there's a glass green pepper we all thought was funny. They're the ornaments we remember best, love the most.

And although she speaks wistfully, from time to time, of her two blue Christmases, Mom loves them, too.

Because my mother had a vision for what a Christmas tree could be.

But she also knew what a Christmas tree should be.

Send Us Your Photos

Do you have an old ornament that holds holiday memories for your family — even if it's seen better days?

We want to see it!

Just take a photo and e-mail a high-resolution, 200 dpi image to us at baylife@tampatrib.com, or send a photo to BayLife Ornament, The Tampa Tribune, 200 S. Parker St., Tampa FL 33606. Deadline is noon Monday.

Please include the following information:

1. Your name, phone number (not for publication) and where you live (Carrollwood, for example, or South Tampa).

2. Tell us about the ornament in 200 words or less. How did you get it? How old is it? Why is it special to you? If it's handmade, who made it, and how old was he or she at that time? If it's an heirloom, tell the story of how it was handed down to you.

We'll run some of the best photos and stories in BayLife on Christmas Eve.

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