A Ghost (or two) from Christmas Past

I was sitting and looking at this picture as I animated the snow falling...

It reminded me that the color blue has always been my favorite color for Christmas. For as long as I can remember I've always decorated my trees (when i had them) with blue lights, and sometimes some white.

I think the fascination with blue lights began when I was quite young. Each year my mother would load my brother and I into her car and drive to Wyoming Avenue and some other streets in (I think ) Short Hills and Livingston NJ, where the rich lived. They were known for decorating their homes really pretty and we'd drive up and down the streets to see all the lights.

I can't remember how old I was, but I do remember one time she took a road that became a dead end. At the end of this road was a home decorated in all blue lights. This was back in the day that "outside lights" were those big bulbs, nothing like today's small glitter lights.

Every seam and corner of the house had lights on it. Every window was adorned with the same lights. The blue lights reflected off of the snow that was on the ground. And off to one side was a small pen set up with two baby lambs in it for petting.

I remember feeling like I stepped into a dream .. and I never forgot that house. I don't know if we went back the next year or not.. memories fade when we age..heh. But I never forgot the feeling of it being a dreamy fantasy.

I guess over the years I'd try to get that feeling back from when I was a kid and saw that house. I'm not sure I ever really got it back, but I do know the very few times I tried to use a different color lights, or multicolored lights, on my Christmas Tree, it just never seemed right to me.

I guess that's odd, as I still enjoy looking at everyone else's tree's no matter how they are decorated.... but mine always had to be blue.

Me and Charlie Brown...

Maybe it was only 10 yrs ago when I was living in California.. money was tight and Christmas was upon us. I managed to buy a small (maybe 4 ft) tree to set on a table.. that made money even tighter. I went to a store and found some lights on sale since Christmas was so close, they were trying to get them sold. (blue lights of course!) Then I searched the store and found these really big bags of cotton and purchased them.

After I put the lights on the tree, I took the cotton and branch by branch dragged the cotton over them hoping it would look like snow on the branches. I wish i had a photo of that tree (laughing here).. I guess you'd call it my own personal "Charlie Brown" tree lol..

But it was BLUE!

And if you got really far away it even looked like snow on the branches LOL.