Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

I got a call from my daughter last night. When I saw her name come up on my phone I immediately said what every parent says when their kid calls, “Is everything okay?” Thankfully, it was.

The reason she called was to share an old Christmas memory with me. She was in the process of finding the right Christmas tree for her family. Her husband was driving her and their kids around tree shopping.

It was 1992 and my daughter was 9 years old. Her mother had just passed away in April and this would be her first Christmas without her mom. My brother and I borrowed our dad’s huge 1982 Oldsmobile and went on a Christmas tree hunt.

We started at Mahoney’s in Winchester. My daughter didn’t see a tree that she liked. We hit a few other lots but she still didn’t find the perfect tree. After two hours into our search we ended up back in Somerville at a Christmas tree lot across from the old Star Market on Broadway. Sure enough, my daughter found a tree that was suitable for decorating. My brother and I tied it to the roof of the car and we took it home.

My daughter remembers this story every Christmas. When she had called, her husband and two kids were on their way to their third place looking for a tree. She especially remembers the patience my brother and I displayed as we schlepped from place to place on that chilly December night in 1992. We were just trying to help make a 9-year-old little girls’ first Christmas without her mother as special and loving as possible.

The next day we took her to Bradlees and she picked out some ornaments. She decorated the tree with the new ornaments along with our traditional family heirloom ones. Some of the old decorations were ones her mom made in grade school. The tree looked great!

The phone call from my daughter sharing this memory every year is especially bittersweet because we lost my brother, her loving uncle, in 1994 only two years after her mom passed. So every Christmas season she recalls that emotional yet fun filled tree hunting memory.

A few years later there was another tree shopping story. My daughter was with two older married cousins who took her to find a Christmas tree. After not finding the right tree, my daughter insisted they take her to another lot.

They finally picked out a suitable tree. The sales guy outside gave them rope to tie it on the car and a receipt that they were supposed to take inside and pay for the tree. My cousin tied the tree on the roof and said, “Okay, let’s go!” My daughter said “But we didn’t pay for the tree!” My cousin said, “Yes, we did!” My daughter again insisted, “We didn’t pay for the tree!” Again he replied, “Yes, we did pay!” At this point my cousin’s wife was starting to cry. She thought that their Christmas would be cursed for stealing the tree or it would catch fire and all sorts of stuff. Plus, you can’t pull the wool over a little kids eyes. Did they take off or did they go back in and pay? I’ll never tell.

Those are a couple of Christmas tree shopping in Somerville stories from almost 30 years ago.

So my daughter called to share the memory of my late brother and I taking her to pick out a Christmas tree for her first Christmas without her mom. She thinks of that day over 27 years ago and remembers it fondly. So do I.

Though loved ones may be gone, it’s memories like these that make us smile at this time of year. And the best part is that now my “little girl” drives her husband crazy going to several different places looking for that perfect tree.