A Merry Mid-century Christmas Continued

Each year we cut our Christmas tree down the day (or a couple) after Thanksgiving.  This year was no different, except we chose a Norway Spruce instead of our usual Scotch Pine.  About a week before Christmas, I began hearing the sound of needles falling.  Usually, we don't have an issue with this, but either due to the different type of tree or the drought we've seen here in the midwest this past fall, it was raining spruce needles like a spring torrent.  When ornaments began to fall off the tree when the branches would no longer support them, we decided it was time for the tree to come down.  It was only the day after Christmas.  Normally, we leave the tree up at least until after New Year's Day, but there was no way.  So, my wife suggested we put up our aluminum tree.  The tree was my family's before I was born.  Here's a couple shots from December 1967.  I was 3 month's old.  That's me in the striped onesie:

I love that you can see the reflection of the tree in the mirror over the mantle as well as the midcentury clock hanging on the opposite wall.  I wish I had that clock.  My father broke off the tines in an effort to modernize it some years later.  Another midcentury treasure can be seen in the right foreground.  That light fixture was still in our living room when I was growing up.  I'm not sure what happened to it.  I'm sure it ended up going out with the garbage.  Note my brother's Lost in Space robot in the box in the lower left -- man, I wish I had that. 

Anyway, back to current times.  My mother gave me the tree some years back.  Even though it's heyday was before me, we used to put it up in my bedroom when I was little.  My brother, sister and I would lay underneath it as it rotated above us.  My brother liked to put his little toy tiger "Pouncer" (it may have been an Esso premium) on a branch and watch him go around.

Sorry, back to current time again.  So now it's up in living room:

The color wheel is original to the tree as well.  How does this relate to garage sales?  See the rotating base?  $1 at a garage sale.  The same sale I bought the foil tree featured in my previous Midcentury Christmas post.  My mother's original has stopped working.  This one works great and plays a music box version of Jingle Bells when you activate a little switch on the base.