More Christmas Kitsch....

Not my current kitsch, but my favorite kitsch from my childhood. Super kitschy kitsch. When I was kid we had an honest to goodness SNOWING Christmas tree. I was seven when we moved from a tiny little cape cod in Huntington, New York, to new, big tri-level house in the Chicago suburbs. We put up our Christmas tree in out big lower level family, but since the living room and dining room was upstairs, my mom thought we needed some decoration upstairs too. So one year before Christmas we were out shopping, at a Marshal Fields outlet store I think, when my parents stumbled upon this bargain artificial tree that couldn't be resisted. A SNOWING artificial tree! The tree sat in this big octagonal cardboard basin what was assembled by connecting cardboard panels with wing nuts. At the base of the tree sat a small vacuum pump, which attached to a tube that ran alongside the trunk of the tree. The angel attached to tube. Into the basin you dumped a huge bagfull of tiny styrofoam balls. When you turned on the noisy pump it sucked up the stryofoam snow, shot it up the tube, where it hit the bottom of the angel then showered down upon the tree. The tree came with all the lights, and beautiful set of coordinated ornaments, all silky thread and glitter cord wrapped styrofoam, which was quite in vogue at the time. I think there were also fake plastic gingerbread men and candycanes and maybe some other sugar plum sort of things. All for, as I recall, $35.

My siblings and I thought it was the most wonderful, magnificent thing, and it certainly livened up the living room. We thought we were pretty special to have the only snowing christmas tree of anyone we knew. It was a pain to assemble the whole thing, and after a many years, and 2 states and houses later, my dad refused to have anything to do with putting up that %^$*#$ tree. So my sibs and I put it up, and eventually it was relegated to a spot in the basement rec room. I wonder what happened to that tree. Shortly after I moved to Utah, my parents moved to Florida,and I know they didn't take the tree with them. I've never thought to ask what became of the tree. Perhaps one of my sibs still has it, I'm not sure. I'm sure if it's around it's pretty shabby. I'd still love to see it again!