It came in a box with a stand and a pole,

and branches that fit snuggly into each hole.

No strings of lights came along with the deal,

to light it up you needed a color wheel.

We hung ornaments on it, just like it wasn't fake,

the ones from the store and the ones school kids make.

We still have some of them though they're yellowed and torn,

they've survived many a happy Christmas 'morn.

While the color wheel spun casting tones on the tree,

you better not touch it, because believe you me.

That contraption got hot and it was the hard way I learned,

that If you touch a hot color wheel, then you will get burned!

That aluminum tree that once graced our den,

reminds me of Christmases way back when.

Although it was long ago I recall a few facts,

like the stencils we made on the windows with Glass Wax.

The toys were much bigger, and the stockings more stuffed,

Santa made sure he brought more than enough.

Mom and Dad, my sister, my brother and me,

opening gifts underneath the aluminum tree.

We had plenty of real trees in my days as a kid,

but they didn't stand out like the old fake tree did.

The real ones had garland and bulbs big as balloons,

and you could still find a strand or two of tinsel in June.

Life in the 60's had really progressed,

it was modern to have an aluminum tree, I guess.

Hopefully at the height of the fake tree influx,

some real trees escaped hacking, and being loaded on trucks.

I'll never forget that old fake Christmas tree,

shining and glimmering and something to see.

And the sound I recall in my head never fades,

that squeaky, squealing sound that the color wheel made.

The tree may be real, or the tree may be fake,

great Christmas memories, do not a tree make.

When I think of the days when my family was whole,

I smile, then I sob, and re-live those Christmases in my soul.