Cranberries, Popcorn And Silver Stars

Story ID:	1267
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Only Here
Location:	Greenwood County Kansas USA
Year:	1930
Person:	Clarence McGhee family

Published in the December 1994 issue of Golden Years.
(On page two with a full page with a black and white snow scene across the bottom and a tall snowy tree going up the left side and top. So impressive to my ego back then)

Cranberries, Popcorn And Silver Stars

Winter in the Flint Hills of Greenwood County, Kansas is bleak and cold to many of its sparse inhabitants, but as a small child in the 30's I remember the Hills as an immense, shimmering, glittering snow drift. Here and there in the range land of endless white were dark blotches showing the existence of small canyons filled with sturdy, dark-green cedars.

The arrival of our Christmas Tree was the beginning of the holiday season for my family. I remember the first time I experienced the thrill of going with Daddy to locate an appropriate tree for Christmas. My daddy, Clarence Oliver McGhee, knew just where to go.

On a nice sunny Sunday after a heavy snow and shortly before Christmas, Daddy would have us bundle up warmly in four buckle overshoes, hand knitted mittens, stocking caps and long scarves wrapped around our necks. Then we would follow in his footprints as he trekked through the snow-drifted Bluestem grass to a canyon in the fold of the hills almost a mile from our home.

Scattered along the rocky sides of the canyon were many cedars of all sizes. We would select a well rounded tree about my height. After scraping the snow from around the tree, Daddy dug out around the tree roots. The snow kept the ground from being frozen solid, so the digging went well even in the rocky soil. Daddy carefully packed the tree in a container and placed it on our small sled. We would take turns pulling our treasure home. This living tree stayed on our front porch until the day before Christmas.

When the Christmas season neared our home on the snow-covered prairies, our house would take on a cherry atmosphere as we began to make lustrous long, red garlands using fresh, whole cranberries. We would thread a large darning needle with string from Mother’s string ball. Our mother saved string through the year. Every time Daddy opened the hundred pound cotton sacks of flour or chicken feed, Mother would unravel the string that the sacks were sewn shut with, to add to her ball.

Stringing cranberries and popcorn took many long hours to get the strands long enough for a big tree. But the evenings of family togetherness around the living room stove were lots of fun as we enjoyed big bowls of popcorn drizzled with golden home-made butter. Daddy was in charge of popping the corn, that he had grown and as we munched, we would carefully thread unbuttered kernels into white garlands to drape in contrast with the ruby red cranberries.

Then we made bright silver stars. We would go to Mother’s hoarding drawer and get our small supply of foil we’d saved from spearmint chewing gum wrappers. Back then each stick of gum was in a foil and wax paper wrapper and we had to carefully peel them apart. With the resulting thin silver foil we covered cardboard stars cut from the backs of our Big Chief writing tablets.

The first one we made was a large star that went on top of the tree each year. We covered smaller stars to hang here and there on the tree. With the darning needle we would poke a tiny hole in one point of each star to thread a piece of string to hang them with. Each year we were able to make a few new ones.

Mother showed us girls how to cut magazines ads and turn them into glossy, paper chains. We would cut many rectangles, one-half by five inches long, from the colorful ads. Then we would start by making a loop by lapping the ends and sticking them together with paste, we made from flour and water. Next we would loop another strip of paper through the first loop, pasted the ends and so on until the gleaming chain was the length we wanted. Draped in scallops on the tree or across the windows they were eye-catching.

When the tree was brought inside and placed in the living room corner, the day before Christmas, we would transform it into a shimmering dream with all the scallops of red berries and white popcorn and little silver stars. In between we arranged the glistening paper chains. At the very last Daddy placed the large star at the top and our plain old Kansas cedar tree was a sight to be remembered. Best of all it didn’t cost very much, just the cranberries had to be bought.

The week after Christmas the stars were removed and stored for another year. Then the tree was moved to the front yard where we could watch the brave winter birds feasting on a banquet of popcorn and berries. Each year Daddy replanted our Christmas trees to make a much needed windbreak and shelter for the birds.