Popcorn on the Christmas Tree

Picture it: Christmas 1977.

It’s my parents’ first Christmas. They have decorated their tree with origami ornaments they made from wrapping paper and are trying to string popcorn to wrap around it. It isn’t working well. The popcorn keeps cracking and breaking. Apparently you’re supposed to use soft, stale popcorn when you string it but they didn’t know this. My mom goes into the kitchen to get yet another bowl. While she’s gone, my dad, in frustration, just chucks the popcorn on the tree.

And we’ve been throwing the popcorn on the tree ever since.

Small children and dogs clear the bottom branches by Christmas. What they don’t eat we just shake off the tree when we take it down, sweep it up, and throw it outside for the birds.

Here are our children putting the finishing touches on our tree this year. What didn’t make it onto the tree was picked up and eaten in short order.