Big Pic

December 2003:  Christmas Eve When we lived on Hoskins Pike just east of Richwood, the Christmas tree was always placed in front of one of our two bay windows, either in the dining room on the east or in living room on the west.  In 1960 it was in the living room.  On the right was the television, topped by a long basket containing the holiday cards we'd received.  On the left, beyond the organ bench, was the staircase. Our family usually waited until Christmas morning to open the presents.  But on the evening of December 24, 1960, we made an exception, because we knew that one of the packages contained a Polaroid camera.  We wanted to take a picture of the tree with its presents before they were unwrapped. Here's the very first photo, taken by my father, showing the lighted star on the top of the tree. Of course I remember the multicolored decorations.  Aside from the tinsel, they were mostly of glass and plastic. There were two sizes of styrofoam stars, each with a pipe-cleaner stem growing out of one point for hanging purposes.  There were plastic "bells" that fit over light bulbs, while other bulbs were encased in a sphere of "ice crystals."  And there was a mirrored pinwheel device that hung over a light bulb to spin and flash slowly in the rising warm air.