Over the weekend, Steve’s grandpa told me about the first outdoor Christmas tree. I thought about it today while I trimmed my indoor one. Before these lights that are such a hassle, they had candles on the trees. Just when I think modern conveniences aren’t convenient, I realize the alternative is a fire waiting to happen. Read this story; it’s fascinating.
IT was Christmas Eve 1914. On a quiet street in snowy Denver, a young boy lay in his upstairs bedroom, too ill even to be carried downstairs to join family members around the Christmas tree. According to the attending physician, this would be 10-year-old David Jonathan Sturgeon’s last Christmas.
The boy’s grandfather, D.D. Sturgeon, one of Denver’s pioneer electricians, could not bear to see his grandson completely miss out on the holiday festivities. Saddened and desperately wanting to brighten the small lad’s holidays, he took some ordinary light bulbs, dipped them in red and green paint, connected them to electrical wire and proceeded to string the glowing baubles onto the branches of a pine tree outside David’s bedroom window, within easy view of the boy’s appreciative gaze.
News of Sturgeon’s efforts to please his grandson spread throughout the city and, night after night, folks came by horse and carriage to see the wondrous sight of an outdoor lighted Christmas tree. And it’s no surprise that they were so fascinated, considering the fact that David Jonathan Sturgeon’s Christmas tree holds the record for the world’s first outdoor electric lighted Christmas display.
Complete story here
By Doris Kennedy
with special thanks to the Denver Post
holly pelesky 
My Dad was from Germany and we sang O Tannenbaum every year. I love the old time antique Santa's such as Father Christmas, not the cheap ho ho ho guy.
Wow, wish you'd come and decorate my house, I still have my fall foliage and pumpkins everywhere.
I love this time between Thanksgiving and Christmas…..I always have a renewed hope in mankind that we can all do better.
Tis the season!
Karen,
I would love to come and decorate your house. There is nothing left here that I can decorate.
I took four years of German classes and about all I know anymore is the song “O Tannebaum.”
Oh How I wish you lived closer and hired out………….I have closets and boxes full of Christmas decorations, but for some reason, I've lost the desire to do all the work. Part of it might be that I work in a nursing home and we decorate about 20 trees there, so have lost the drive to do my own house.
Four years of German, you must be fluent in it, not me, only caught on to key phrases etc.
Thanks for the offer Martha Stewart, maybe next year!