One Saturday afternoon in the first week of December when I appeared for my lesson at the usual time, I entered Mrs. Flood’s living room only to find a forest of Christmas trees growing on the lid of her grand piano. There was also a small stand of smaller sized Christmas trees artfully arranged on her coffee table. The hand-crafted trees were gifts for her students and friends. Although I didn’t find that out until after one hour later when my lesson was done and I become a proud owner of one of the shorter trees that had moments before graced her piano.
The little tree was actually a Styrofoam cone, the kind typically used for crafts, and instead of pine needles, it sported shiny foil-wrapped candies. I was so taken with the candy Christmas tree that I asked my piano teacher to show me how to make them. The following year, I made them for my teachers at school, friends from my dance class and some of the other adults in my life, including a couple of my friends’ mothers.
Earlier this month, I walked by a display window for an independent bookstore here in the city where I live. There was a gingerbread house, a Santa’s sleigh pulled by the notorious team of reindeer and a small forest of candy bar Christmas trees of different heights. No ruler-knuckle-rapper-if-you-made-a-mistake type of piano teacher, fond memories of Mrs. Flood, her beautiful black grand piano, and the his and hers chairs where we sat in front of the fireplace for a chat after my lesson came rushing back.
I was curious to see if I could remember how to make them. I made a list of what I thought I needed and off I went to a mall with a crafts store. I bought three Styrofoam cone forms in different heights: 6”, 8” and 10.” The ones I remember from long ago were white but these ones that I found at the store were green already, which saved the first step of covering them in green construction paper.
To decorate the trees, I chose a selection of bulk candy with gold and silver wrappers for one; red and white wrappers for the second tree; and silver, red and green ones for the tallest tree. Beginning at the, I used large colored straight pins to attach the “ornaments” to each Styrofoam form. (Staggering each row will help eliminate any occurring blank spots.) I added four streamers of different colored ribbons, curled first with the edge of a scissor blade, to the trees for a festive look. They were fastened with more Christmas lights (colored pins).
The stars were created by cutting out two star shapes for each tree out of pantyhose cardboard, and then coloring them with a yellow glitter crayon. I then glued two stars together with a toothpick in between the pieces of cardboard so that part of it was left sticking out. To place the star on top of the tree, I gently pushed the toothpick into the top of the cone, and voilá, a little forest of Christmas trees.
They turned out rather well, if I may say so myself. Just like the ones I made all those years ago, I had planned to give them away as gifts. Currently, they are sitting in the middle of my dining table as a centerpiece, until I purchase some fresh holly for the usual annual centerpiece I make for the Christmas dinner table. They look like such a happy trio! Hmm…perhaps we’ll just skip buying holly this year.
