Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. Today is Wednesday, and it’s time for the next post in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. If you want to join in the challenge, you can find the topics for 2024 here, and if you’d like to read other people’s responses to this week’s topic, you can do so here.

An Interesting Story About Family or Friends

I don’t know if any of you will find this as interesting as I did, but I’ll carry on and tell you about it nevertheless!

A few years ago, my nanna and I were discussing our love of Christmas trees, and she told me the reason she loves them so much is because they remind her of her dad.

When war broke out in 1939, my nanna was six years old. She would tell us often while we were growing up about the scarcity that occurred rather quickly during the war years. She told us about the sugar ration, sweet rationing and shortages of all the everyday food things we take for granted today, like eggs and butter.

At Christmas time, she said, her family felt the pinch all the more. Turkeys were so expensive that people were advised to eat something else, like mutton pie, and she said her granny even tried making a Christmas pudding with carrots because fruit had become so hard to get hold of.

However, the chief shortage at Christmas – at least in my nanna’s opinion (apart from the missing loved ones), was Christmas trees.

Christmas trees, it turns out, were few and far between because the men who would have usually been responsible for cutting them down and delivering them were at war.

It feels unimaginable to me; the idea of having Christmas without a tree – it’s the best part! Anyone who spends any time at all on my website will know that I have a tremendous appreciation for Christmas trees.

It also felt unimaginable to my nanna as well; at such a young age, her mind immediately went to the big questions, like: without a tree, how will Father Christmas be able to tell those who celebrate Christmas from those who don’t, and possibly more importantly, how will he know where to leave the presents?

And so her dad had a think and finally came up with an idea which would ensure a visit from the man in red.

As my nanna watched with rapt fascination and wonder, her dad went outside, retrieved the hard-bristled broom from the backyard and removed the bristly end.

Next, he dowelled holes up and down the broom handle while my nanna and her mum twisted together pipe cleaners to create furry little branches, which were then glued into the holes.

While they waited for the glue to dry, my nana and her dad went out into the garden, grabbed a large, empty clay plant pot and filled it with dirt.

Upon returning to the house, they stuck the broom handle, complete with its new branches, in the pot, decorating their new tree with biscuit/cookie cutters and some colourful wool in place of tinsel.

My young nanna had been thrilled and remembered that tree for the rest of her life.

As she told me about it, I was enraptured, and her story inspired one of mine: Tommy’s Tree, a story I wrote based on my nanna’s memory of that day.

Anyway, that’s enough outta me! This was a nice post. I enjoyed telling you all that story. I’m excited to read about some of your family and friends.

As always, thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate it.

Until next time,

George

© 2024 GLT

Categories: life, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Tags: blog, challenge, Christmas tree, Nanna, Second world war, war, Wednesday, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge, WWII