The Christmas Tree
I do remember the tree and especially the Santa Claus doll! Yup, I had a doll! Well, it was the trees doll, anyway! Our trees were always fresh until Mom discovered the aluminum tree (ugly!) Lights were 115 volt lights...C6's I think! Tinsel all over the place and it had to be just right. No throwing, strand by strand. Our ornaments were beautiful in my eyes. Most of them were lost when an airplane hit Moms home in 1990 but I recently found some Christopher Rado ornaments of the 30s and 40s era.
New ways of flocking a tree were practiced in the 40s. The best way to flock a tree was to mix a box of Lux soap with two cups of water and brush it on the tree. Allow this to dry and your tree would look as though it was lightly frosted with new fallen snow. Mom tried it, Ugly!
Americans harbored bitter feelings towards Germany during the war, and this hostility was manifested in the boycott of Christmas decorations. No more German-made ornaments -- they were thrown out with the trash. The first American glass ornaments were of clear glass and not silvered inside, due to war restrictions. The tinsel inside the ornaments was to give it a sparkly effect. Americans complained because these clear ornaments did not reflect the lights as well as the silvered European ones. By 1942, even the metal caps for the ornaments had disappeared because metal could not be wasted on something as frivolous as a Christmas ornament. Paper and cardboard tops were employed.
