A couple of days ago, my girlfriend searched "Christmas tree stand" on Craigslist and turned up this funky old item. My word, it's painted old school army green like one of the jeeps in M*A*S*H and it's made out of, like, STEEL. Three incandescent light bulbs fit inside. The current bulbs are green, red, and blue. No, they don't blink on and off. Too bad.
The underside has some rust, so you know it's been through a lot of holidays, sat in puddles of egg nog or held up trees outdoors in the winter weather. We could feel The Spirit of Christmas Past lingering heavily in the metal. Forty bucks! Can't beat it with a stick!
Who sends a personal assistant to sell a $40 item? It's a sure thing that young woman is salaried, not paid by the hour. This little detail only adds to the mystique of the item: we like to imagine the Christmas tree stand was in a rich, affluent, somewhat decadent environment. Who knows what it witnessed at those drunken holiday parties?
We just can't get over what a cool item we obtained for so little money. It must have half a century of Christmases to its credit. We plan to rack up at least half a century more.
This is definitely a very old and quite unusual tree stand!! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteIt was used with a white Christmas tree that revolved in the stand changing the color of the tree as it turned. My grandmother had one in the 50's
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