Letters To Home-December 27, 1951

This is an addition to my Letters To Home, which describes my spending Christmas Day with a German family. I forgot to include this in my letter at the time, but will always remember it.

Growing up, I had always heard from my grandfather and my father, about how, in the days before electricity was common in homes, that the Christmas trees were decorated with actual lighted candles. The German family I visited on Christmas had a tannenbaum, of course, and along with the usual ornaments, tinsel, etc., there were actual lighted candles on the tree. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen, especially in a semi-dark room. What they did to prevent the tree from catching fire, I don't know, but the people didn't appear to be concerned about it.