OH, Ho, Ho, How Things Change by Pennie Hunt

When I was a child, for a couple of years, we had a tinfoil Christmas Tree. Well, maybe it wasn’t made of tinfoil, but it looked like it to me.

​My mom was thrilled with her shiny tree. She had a light that looked like a wheel, divided into sections of colored thin cellophane paper. When the wheel turned, the light behind it would shine through the paper and onto the tree, changing its color to red, green, blue, and yellow.
​My mom thought it was stunning.

Although I liked the sparkle and shine, I was not as enamored as my mom was with the tinfoil tree. After a few years of tinfoil, my mom moved on to real flocked trees, and eventually the ever-popular artificial tree.

I have always been crafty and have been a painter for most of my life. When my children were young, I was into folk art decorative painting. I painted everything from wooden tables to sweatshirts.

One Christmas, I painted a pair of 3-foot-high Mr. & Mrs. Santa geese. Yup, remember when geese were the thing? I thought they were fabulous, and I still put them out every year as holiday decorations. I wonder if my kids were as enamored with them as I was.

Last year, there was a nutcracker craze. Social media was taken over with thousands of videos of how someone traveled hundreds of miles to find the elusive life-sized Walmart nutcracker, and photos of how people painted them. From traditional colors to pinks and rhinestones, these plastic men were adorned to the extreme.

I followed this trend with outside interest but never felt the urge to drive 600 miles to snatch up one of the plastic men in uniform. Where would you store such a thing for the other 11 months of the year?  

Oh, how things change over time. Out of curiosity, I looked up those tinfoil trees. They are actually called aluminum trees. Vintage ones from the ​1970​'s are very expensive and can cost thousands of dollars to buy. You can also buy new ones even today. I am not sure about the goose Santas. I haven’t seen those in stores for many years. And the nutcrackers? Although they are still out there and you can find them on the social media scene, it is not the phenomenon it was last year.

It is funny how crazes, trends, and what is in vogue changes- even in holiday décor. I wonder what the craze was when my mom was a child. And looking forward, I wonder what the future will bring. You won’t convince me that the traditional green tree filled with red, gold, and silver decorations will ever go out of style. But will the modern sleek, all white and black become the norm? Will the tin foil trees become the most popular once again? Will decorating with lights and glitter go out of style?

Your guess is as good as mine. What I have noticed in my lifetime is that very often what is old becomes new again. If that is true…heads up to my kids, you will be inheriting a set of 3-foot-high Mr. & Mrs. Santa geese someday.
You never know, they may be worth thousands of dollars.
You are welcome.
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                                                    Pennie’s Life Lesson:
                         In life, sometimes what is old becomes new again.  
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​YOUR TURN...        
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