(Friendly) Ghosts of Christmas Past — The Trashy Turquoise Twinkly Tree
By: Donna L Roberts, Phd, Psych Pstuff
Tags: Christmas Tree, Christmas, Memories, Family, Culture

“I’m going to run out of money before the end of the year,” I thought. Whatever would I do?

It was the winter break of my final year of university, and I had run out of money. I didn’t own a credit card, and had tapped out all of my student loans. I was at a loss to know what to do.

Christmas was coming, but my financial woes ensured I would not be able to get into the holiday spirit anytime soon. I was living a frugal student lifestyle, so I had no extra funds at the best of times. Years of university life had tapped out all of my cash, even though I had worked part time to try to keep up with the heavy expenses.

Pondering my situation, I started cleaning my residence for what would be my final year there. When I went out to deposit the garbage inside the shed that held the bins, I noticed that someone had thrown away a small, ragtag, artificial Christmas tree. It had seen far better days and reminded me of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree I’d seen on the animated TV movie. To top it off, it was a hideous hue of bright turquoise. I didn’t mind the color, though it seemed more than a little garish for a holiday tree.

In any case, I felt sorry to see the poor tree lying there. It looked about as sad as I felt that holiday season. Since I was broke and wouldn’t be buying any decorations, I decided to save the tree and put it up in my place. How bad could it be?

And so it was that I came to own a bent up, trashy turquoise Christmas tree. After I straightened it up a little, I plugged it in, only to find to my amazement that all the lights still worked. Looking around my place, I found some old keychains and other doodads to hang as impromptu decorations. Overall, it didn’t look too bad, blending in with the décor of my makeshift, student apartment.

I propped the tree up on top of my TV so the twinkly bulbs would reflect against my dormitory window. Then I left the lights on to look at from outside, as I headed across campus to the library. Once outdoors, I was amazed to notice a group had gathered outside the dorm, looking up at my window. As raggedy and small as it looked indoors, from down below, it appeared to be the top section of a tall, elegant tree. On that dark snowy night, it was stunningly beautiful. In that unexpected magical moment, the tree and I were both transformed.

The resurrected tree immediately made me feel better and calmer, enough so that I could finally sit down and begin planning my finances for my last school term. I started filling in applications for credit cards, as well as several student bursary grants. Through it all, my turquoise tree twinkled warmly at me. It was starting to feel more like Christmas.

Soon afterwards, a credit card arrived in the mail, as well as two bursary checks. I was stunned at my good luck, suddenly finding myself with enough funds to scrape through the rest of the school term. What a relief! And I owed it all to my trashy, turquoise twinkly tree. I certainly could feel the warm Christmas cheer now.

The rest of the year passed quickly, and as I planned to move on into the working world, I gave away the odds and ends that passed for furniture during my time as a student. But I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of that turquoise tree that had helped me through such a desperate, rough patch.

That tree was the catalyst that marked a turning point in my life. My epiphany came when the twinkly tree inspired me enough to change my attitude and plan my way through diversity.

So now, years later, my family still puts up that trashy turquoise tree, reminding all of us to stay as humble as possible, and that it’s often a just a slight change of attitude that can get us through a very tight spot.

Every Christmas, it holds pride of place within our home and has always been a great conversation piece over the holidays. We love our turquoise tree.