This very Christmas tree has been lighting up lives in the same Albury window for more than half a century, writes JANET HOWIE.
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A SIMPLE tree, some lights, decorations and more than 50 years have created Christmas memories for passers-by along an Albury street.
Since 1961 Judy Brindley has erected the same tree in the front window of her Poole Street home, positioning its lights to be seen best from outdoors.
Over the years this tree has been a focal point for her Christmas celebrations with late husband Ron and their two daughters Janice and Pam, who both now live in Wodonga.
“We used to come home from midnight mass when they were very small and we always used to sit under the Christmas tree and have Christmas cake,” Mrs Brindley, 84, says.
“Then they’d go off to bed and wait for Santa. Once they were in bed I didn’t check too much.
“I think the excitement’s always there for children isn’t it, on Christmas Eve.”
And the tree had another important role for the girls on Christmas Day.
“That’s where Santa left the presents, so I think it was a big thing in their lives,” she smiles.
In the late 1950s, the tree stood in a Coburg Coles store before the manager, the father of Mrs Brindley’s friend, asked if the family, then living in Melbourne, would like it for themselves.
The Brindleys, originally from Albury, returned to the Border after five years in the city and the tree came with them.
“Trees were the thing years ago,” Mrs Brindley says.
“People had a tree in their window, rather than decorating the houses but now that’s become popular of course.
“It’s lovely to go around and see them, but I still love to see a tree in a window, I think it’s more personal.”
Not just family members have appreciated her tree; two Christmases ago Mrs Brindley found a card in her letterbox.
“Every year we look out for your Christmas tree,” it read.
“It has been a constant since the children were small and not many people put up lights in these days.
“Your tree has become part of our Christmas. Thank-you.”
Mrs Brindley says she was thrilled by the message.
Christmas lights may not last half a century, but some of Mrs Brindley’s other decorations date back to the tree’s Melbourne days.
“Gradually they’ve come along over the years, different things,” she says.
“Each one represents something, different ones have been given to me.”
Mrs Brindley feels some of the magic has gone out of the festive season in recent years.
“Not so much Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but it starts in November,” she says.
“I think the children see Santa for about six weeks before Christmas, whereas in those days Santa only came Christmas Eve.
“A simple Christmas is what I’ve always believed in, just a simple get-together with family and a meaningful one.”
And, as her tree demonstrates, Christmas is a time for traditions.
“It is and I hope that it always stays that way,” she says.
When do you erect your Christmas tree?
I always put it up at the beginning of December.
The lights don’t go on until December, of course, but they’re on every night.
Do you put the decorations on in any special order?
No, no, just get them out of the box and put them on wherever.
How well has the tree stood up to the test of time?
You can see where some of the limbs have fallen off and I’ve covered them over with a card or something.
When I take all the decorations off I push them all in and each time I pull them out I think another one’s going to break off.
Are you planning to keep up the annual tradition?
For the last couple of years I’ve thought, ‘Oh, I don’t think I’ll put that out this year’ and then December comes and I think, ‘Righto, it’s time for the tree to go up’, so I put it up.
It will go on for a while yet, as long as I’m going, I suppose.
I’ll still realise that it’s Christmas and put the tree up.