This is the 47th year I’ve put up my own tree and I now have enough ornaments to fill three or four trees. Our first tree only had a half dozen homemade ornaments, so I decided to string popcorn to fill in the gaps. Luckily I used really heavy black thread that came on a wooden spool. You couldn’t break it so I had to use scissors.
I threaded the corn — you know eat two pieces, thread one. It took forever, but when I strung it on the tree it really looked great. I decided to keep it when I took down the tree and so I packed it away with the ornaments.
The following year it had dried out, but looked golden and even prettier. So I strung it again and this time added gold gingham bows I made. I even got all gold lights (those light strands lasted over twenty years).
That tradition has continued every year and I found that the popcorn strand lasts exactly 14 years before it starts deteriorating too much to use. I’m now about five years into the fourth set. I still have the last two strands (or parts of them) but keep them packed up. The gingham bows have lasted too (they just don’t make ribbon like they used to). I remember one year our niece Amy pulled off a piece of popcorn and immediately spit it out (she now has her own three daughters). My kids of course think I’m crazy and at my age I don’t really care. But when I’m gone they will get it all — aren’t they lucky!
I first wrote a version of this story when I was with the Eastside Herald back in 2008 before we started the View.