Local Find of the Year: An Evergleam 6' Aluminum Christmas Tree!

We had been looking for a new Christmas tree on and off since moving to the new house because our old tree was 10' high, and because we have no cathedral ceilings in this house, we can't set that one up. Which is really unfortunate, because it is one of those super-realistic ones with branches molded from actual fir tips. Super good looking tree - hate to not use it, but unless we put in cathedral ceilings (which I have actually thought about), it just won't fit the space. So a few weeks ago, my wife (who, recall from the Paul McCobb Intimate Biography story is awesome) came home from work and declared that one of the people that she worked with had a bunch of stuff from the 1960s in their basement and that they may have a christmas tree. My interest was piqued. So I waited for her to talk to her work friend. And waited. And reminded her... and waited. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she came home with the box pictured to the right.  Evergleam!


In the original box no less! It looks like someone had tried to sell it at a garage sale at some point as there were some random figures and text scribbled on the box - including something saying "$6 or $7," and "1961". I don't know if that is when the tree was originally bought, or if that is when  someone tried to sell it, or if that is what the tree was marked down to by the original retailer. It's interesting graffiti though. So, the box had been marked, in all possibility, before JFK met his end in Texas. Wow - it's older than I am - well, a lot of our stuff is though. So I respectfully, but hurriedly began to cut through and remove several layers of packing tape (even the clear plastic packing tape was made much better back then!), and finally got the box open. All of the original packing material was inside - including the cardboard separating the compartments housing the individual branches, the aluminum base, and the silver-foil coated poles that make up the tree base. The only item missing, unfortunately was the original instruction sheet.

So I set up the folded base, and took out the two pole pieces and put those together. At that point, the only items remaining inside of the box were the (hopefully) 94 branches promised on the outside of the box. The branches are housed in some thick brown craft paper sleeves that protect them when they are inserted back through. I took out several of the branches to inspect them. They were in great condition - the tips and some of the aluminum 'needles' were a bit bent, but man - so far everything was looking great! These aluminum trees, most people probably don't realize, are actually made from thin aluminum sheet - not foil, but sheet. It is resistant to being bent and it has some pretty good resiliency to it. These trees are not made from thin, easily bent foil, and they are certainly not made of aluminum-coated mylar like that tinsel stuff - what my grandmother used to call 'icicles'.

So I started putting the individual branches in the holes in the poles. The upper pole is the one that has the holes orientated more upward - to simulate the crown of the tree; the lower branches are more horizontal to simulate the lowermost branches of a fir I suppose. I took maybe 10 branches out of their sleeves at a time and plugged them into the tree 'stem'. This is a much more time-consuming task than you might expect. Things didn't used to be instant like the quick set-up, umbrella-like pre-lit, insto-trees that we have today. Things were made better, but assembly was definitely required. When the first 10 were inserted, I unpacked 10 or 12 more branches and added those, working my way up from the bottom. Slowly and gradually, it began looking like a Christmas tree - or a um, cool 1950's sci-fi version of what one might look like if one lived somewhere where trees didn't grow and a metal was used as a facsimile for the 'leaves'. I was digging the look and gradually becoming more and more hopeful (as the pile of yet-to-be unpacked branches did not seem to be shrinking rapidly) that the tree was complete and that I wouldn't have to hide the missing branches on the back side of the tree.

Turns out that the only thing that was missing from the box was the instructions sheet (assuming that it came with one.) Not only were all of the branches there, but there were actually three extras (for a total of 97 branches). This six foot tall 1950s vintage Evergleam aluminum Christmas tree looks pretty damn good! My grandparents had something similar when I was a kid, and they decorated that thing to the hilt with glittery blown mercury glass ornaments (probably from East Germany during the cold war!), the giant C9 incandescent strings of lights where if one bulb went out you had to track down the culprit, and liberally applied mylar tinsel. It was a sight to behold and was burned into my brain at an early age - well, actually it may have been so bright it was burned into my retinas. Fond memories of that tree, though, dance through my head around the holidays, and I am really glad that (thanks to my awesome wife, again) we were able to find one. Now my grandmother's turkey, that was a completely different story, and not a pretty one.  We will be decorating this tree fairly simply - I mean look at that thing! It doesn't need too much. If Liberace had any other kind of tree than this on Christmas, I would be really disappointed to learn that. I will update this with a part II when the lights come - but we'll be using 75 feet of white-corded C-9 incandescents in the traditional mixed Christmas palette - yellow, orange, red, green, and blue. We might mix in some of the vintage flame-swirl bulbs if we can find them.

It's totally fabulous!