Christmas Story Trees

As we approach Christmas holiday brightness is especially important to us here in Upstate NY.  Since the floods of September 7 and 8, one just hungers for beauty - and Christmas, this year, is delivering to an area weary of ugly.

 Back on December 14, I blogged about the upstate NY village of Owego, about 20 miles west of here, and a special Christmas decoration auction being held December 17 at the Tioga County Historical Society Society.  It is estimated that some 75% of structures in Owego sustained damage (some unrepairable).  Owego is right on the Susquehanna River and flooding is not unknown to it but this time it was (to borrow a phrase from my younger readers), epic.

So this year the auction (now past) was dedicated to the extensive flood recovery needs of the Historical Society.  On December 17, the last day of the auction, I visited again and took some better pictures.

When I titled this "Christmas Story" the first tree was dedicated to that famous movie that is shown in marathon form every Christmas Eve on a certain TV channel.  I will miss it this year but normally I love to see it at least once-if not twice.  This movie works on so many levels for me - and I'm so glad (spoiler alert) Ralphie got his rifle and did not shoot his eye out!  (I know this may surprise a lot of people who know me, but I could watch that movie over and over.)

Anybody else a fan of that movie?

How about this topper?

A tree doesn't have to be green.,  And it can have decoarations that reflect the cultures of its area.  This tree is decorated with some pysanka eggs, also known as Ukrainian easter eggs.  Yes, a Christmas tree decorated by easter eggs.  Why not?

I own a couple of these eggs.  And years ago, I had the happy fortune of going to an Easter event at our local YMCA where the aquatics director (now retired) taught pysanky at no charge and gave us all the opportunity to make our own pysanky-style egg.  I can tell you, it's a lot harder than it looks, but I wouldn't mind taking lessons again-if I have the patience.  (I seem to be losing patience with age - just the opposite of what you would expect.)  My eggs, alas, blew up (a hazard with decorated raw eggs) several years after I made them.

And finally, another awesome topper.

This is the full list of participating trees (and their people).  I don't know how long the list will be up, so it may be gone if you are reading this after the holidays.

Happy holidays to all of my readers.