A Very Important Tree We used to celebrate Mama’s birthday every year by putting up our Christmas tree. December 16 to be exact. Friends came to help and there were goodies to eat. My Uncle Willie always sent a check for $10 for us to buy our tree as his gift to the family. That was the start of Christmas at our house. The first Christmas tree I remember was Papa Tom’s Christmas tree. It was big and stood in the front hall. Mama’s homeplace is known now as The Latham House and is a historic landmark in my hometown, Plymouth, North Carolina. Papa Tom got the tree from a farmer-friend’s woods. It was a cedar and was prickly, even more so as it dried out. It was decorated with beautiful glass ornaments. Some were clear with multicolored stripes, some round and some teardrop shaped and shiny and bright. The lights were glass and shaped like little flames. The color was painted on. I know that because old ones’ paint flaked off leaving them clear. I remember one day, after ...