The family trees

In many houses, the Christmas tree is the centerpiece of a home, during the holiday seson. Most Sun City residents have collected several ornaments over the years. They are ornaments from trips, children’s crafted ones, favorite themes such as Disney, Cats, dogs, and music.

Donna and Larry Newbanks have five Christmas trees in their home, each decorated a different style but all displaying memories of their life together. (Photo by Christine Such/Sun Day)

Larry and Donna Newbanks have 5 trees that hold all their precious memories.

Donna said, “I am a charter member of the Hallmark club and have many Hallmark ornaments including the series that has been around the longest, Frosty Friends.”

Frosty Friends is now in its 35th year. Since the line’s inception, Hallmark has introduced more than 8,500 Keepsake Ornaments and more than 100 ornament series.

Is each tree in the Newbanks’ home different? “Yes,” Donna said. “In our Living room, we have our family tree. That tree contains photos of all our children, our family, and grandchildren, and some ornaments made by them.”

Larry said, “In the Family room we have the largest tree, the memory tree.”

Donna added, “In the basement, we have a tree that is frosted with snow, not flocked but has clumps of snow on it. We call it our Wildlife tree. That is my favorite tree. It has a lot of Moose ornaments on that tree. I just love not only the ornaments but the tree itself.”

Larry’s favorite tree is “the ‘Memory Tree.’ The tree has over a thousand ornaments on it,” Larry said. “It has ornaments from all our travels. They all mean something, adorning every branch is an ornament or photo that transports me back to the past. There is one of the National Cathedral, and it’s a reminder when our grandson sang there with the Moline Boys’ Choir.”

Donna said, “We store each ornament in a separate box to keep them safe. I remember every ornament, when and where we got it, or who gave it to us. They all hold a memory.”

How long does it take you to put this tree up? “About a week, but we don’t work on it all day, and we enjoy looking at the ornaments as we place them on the tree,” Donna said.

Larry said, “We have ornaments from Donna’s grandmother made of pipe cleaners and some made by our mothers after we started having children.”

In regards to the other two trees, Donna said, “We have a Hallmark tree. That tree is just filled with Hallmark ornaments. We have started to give some of those ornaments to our grandchildren. One of our grandsons is a pilot, so we gave him all the ornaments that were planes.”

And the last tree? Donna said, “We wanted to have a tree showing from each window in our house and the last tree we call our color tree.”

The Newbanks’ home holds many memories of their lives together, and their Christmas trees continue to tell those stories, with each branch containing a different ornament that serves as a connection to a long-ago time, place, or memory.

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