It came in a box with a stand and a pole
And branches that fit snugly into each hole
No strings of lights came along with the deal
To light it up you needed a color wheel

We hung ornaments on it, like it wasn’t fake
The ones from the store and the ones school kids make
We still have some of them, though they’re yellowed and torn
They’ve survived many, many a happy Christmas morn

While the color wheel spun casting tones on the tree
You better not touch it, because believe you me
That contraption got hot and it was the hard way I learned
That if you touch a hot color wheel, then you will get burned!

That aluminum Christmas tree that once graced our den
Reminds me of Christmases way back when
Although it was long ago I still recall a few facts
Like the stencils we made on the windows with Glass Wax

The toys were much bigger, and the stockings more stuffed
Santa always made sure he brought more than enough
Mom and Dad, and my sister, my brother and me
Opening gifts underneath that aluminum tree

We had plenty of real trees in my days as a kid
But they didn’t spark the memories that that old fake tree did
The real ones had needles and bulbs big as balloons
And you could still find some strands of tinsel in June

Life in the ‘60s had really progressed
It was hip to have an aluminum tree I guess
Hopefully at the height of the fake tree influx
Some real trees escaped hacking, and being loaded on trucks.

I’ll never forget that aluminum tree
Shining and glimmering and something to see
And the sound I recall in my head never fades
That squeaky, squealing sound that the color wheel made

The tree could be real, or the tree could be fake
Great Christmas memories did not a tree make
When I think of those times when my family was whole
I sigh, then I smile, and feel love in my soul.

By Jimmy Del Ponte
(published in 2013)