Several years ago, I had just sold my first short story to Adams Media’s Rocking Chair Reader series. I was on Cloud 9! A few months later, I sold this story, SILVER MAGIC, to them. It would appear in their first Christmas collection, Classic Christmas: True Stories of Holiday Cheer and Goodwill. I want to share it with you here. This story is true, and is one of the most poignant tales I could ever tell about my grandfather–he died when I was eleven. I never saw this side of him, and I don’t think very many people did–that’s what makes this Christmas story so special.
SILVER MAGIC by Cheryl Pierson
Did you know that there is a proper way to hang tinsel on the Christmas tree?
Growing up in the small town of Seminole, Oklahoma, I was made aware of this from my earliest memories of Christmas. Being the youngest in our family, there was never a shortage of people always wanting to show me the right way to do—well, practically everything! When it came to hanging the metallic strands on the Christmas tree, my mother made it a holiday art form.
“The cardboard holder should be barely bent,” she said, “forming a kind of hook for the tinsel.” No more than three strands of the silver magic should be pulled from this hook at one time. And, we were cautioned, the strands should be draped over the boughs of the tree gently, so as to avoid damage to the fragile greenery.
Once the icicles had been carefully added to the already-lit-and-decorated tree, we would complete our “pine princess” with a can of spray snow. Never would we have considered hanging the icicles in blobs, as my mother called them, or tossing them haphazardly to land where they would on the upper, unreachable branches. Hanging them on the higher branches was my father’s job, since he was the tallest person I knew—as tall as Superman, for sure. He, too, could do anything—even put the serenely blinking golden star with the blonde angel on the very highest limb—without a ladder!
Once Christmas was over, I learned that there was also a right way to save the icicles before setting the tree out to the roadside for the garbage man. The cardboard holders were never thrown out. We kept them each year, tucked away with the rest of the re-useable Christmas decorations. Their shiny treasure lay untangled and protected within the corrugated Bekins Moving and Storage boxes that my mother had renamed “CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS” in bold letters with a black magic marker.
(JACK SORENSON–ARTIST)
At the end of the Christmas season, I would help my sisters undress the tree and get it ready for its lonely curbside vigil. We would remove the glass balls, the plastic bells, and the homemade keepsake decorations we’d made in school. These were all gently placed in small boxes. The icicles came next, a chore we all detested.
We removed the silver tinsel and meticulously hung it back around the little cardboard hook. Those icicles were much heavier then, being made of real metal and not synthetic plastic. They were easier to handle and, if you were careful, didn’t snarl or tangle. It was a long, slow process—one that my young, impatient hands and mind dreaded.
For many years, I couldn’t understand why everyone—even my friends’ parents—insisted on saving the tinsel from year to year. Then one night, in late December, while Mom and I gazed at the Christmas tree, I learned why.
As she began to tell the story of her first Christmas tree, her eyes looked back through time. She was a child in southeastern Oklahoma, during the dustbowl days of the Depression. She and her siblings had gotten the idea that they needed a Christmas tree. The trekked into the nearby woods, cut down an evergreen, and dragged it home. While my grandfather made a wooden stand for it, the rest of the family popped and strung corn for garland. The smaller children made decorations from paper and glue.
“What about a star?” one of the younger boys had asked.
My grandfather thought for a moment, then said, “I’ve got an old battery out there in the shed. I’ll cut one from that.”
The kids were tickled just to have the tree, but a star, too! It was almost too good to be true.
Grandfather went outside. He disappeared around the side of the old tool shed and didn’t return for a long time. Grandmother glanced out the window a few times, wondering what was taking so long, but the children were occupied with stringing the popcorn and making paper chains. They were so excited that they hardly noticed when he came back inside.
Grandmother turned to him as he shut the door against the wintry blast of air. “What took you so long?” she asked. “I was beginning to get worried.”
Grandfather smiled apologetically, and held up the star he’d fashioned. “It took me awhile. I wanted it to be just right.” He slowly held up his other hand, and Grandmother clapped her hands over her mouth in wonder. Thin strands of silver magic cascaded in a shimmering waterfall from his loosely clenched fist. “It’s a kind of a gift, you know. For the kids.”
“I found some foil in the battery,” he explained. “It just didn’t seem right, not to have icicles.”
In our modern world of disposable commodities, can any of us imagine being so poor that we would recycle an old battery for the metal and foil, in order to hand-cut a shiny star and tinsel for our children’s Christmas tree?
A metal star and cut-foil tinsel—bits of Christmas joy, silver magic wrapped in a father’s love for his family.
This anthology is only available used now, but it’s well worth purchasing from Amazon and reading so many heartwarming Christmas stories from yesteryear! Hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas and a fantastic 2025!
Do you have a favorite Christmas memory, or a story that has been handed down through your family about something that happened during the holidays? My parents told a lot of stories about their childhoods, but this story was the one that really stood out for me. I’d love to hear about a favorite family story or one of your dearest Christmas memories! I’m giving away one of my Kindle books to two lucky commenters–YOUR CHOICE!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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A native Oklahoman, I've been influenced by the west all my life. I love to write short stories and novels in the historical western and western romance genres, as well as contemporary romantic suspense! Check my Amazon author page to see my work: http://www.amazon.com/author/cherylpierson
I live in Oklahoma City with my husband of 40 years. I love to hear from readers and other authors--you can contact me here: fabkat_edit@yahoo.com
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What a beautiful story.
We saved the tinsel when I was a kid, but it wasn’t the metal kind.
Hi Denise! thank you, I’m glad you liked the story! I loved that heavy metal tinsel! Now, this plastic composition tinsel just ends up everywhere. But I still use it. It was hard to find last year so I bought 3 packages of it!
Thank you for sharing your story with us. We also saved the tinsel when I was a kid. I remember the metal kind.
You are so welcome, Bonnie! I’m always so glad to share the things I remember of what my mom told me of her life. Yes, that metal tinsel was really so much better, though I DID hate having to save it! LOL
That is such a beautiful story and memory to have. I don’t remember much of my childhood but I do remember having stocking that were HUGE! Sometimes they had large boxes filling them up and sometimes smaller things and not quite so full but all 4 of us kids knew we were loved no matter what was in those stockings.
Carrie, I remember those HUGE stocking, too! I always wanted one, but never did get one. I had one my older sisters had made for me that I kept all the way to adulthood. It was made of red velveteen, and I remember part of it was quilted, and they had sewn and glued Christmas glitter and small decorations to the top where it folded down. Yes–LOVE is the most important memory!
decorating together
Man, I miss that! My family also decorated together, and I did it when my kids were young. I miss doing it now. I am just like the Lone Ranger, decorating my tree by myself. LOL
This was such a beautiful memory that your mother shared with you. Touched my heart. I have so many wonderful memories of my family decorating for the holidays. Hard to pick just one.
Thank you, Kathleen. I think of this so often now that she’s gone. She had a wealth of memories from her childhood–a childhood that had to be so very hard, but she remembered so many good things. Yes, I have a lot of great memories, too–one thing I always think of is how my dad had a super8 movie camera that he’d pull out on Christmas morning and start filming as we came into the living room with that HUGE light bar that just blinded you! LOL We’d all stumble in with our arms up over our eyes for the first few minutes. My mom would be in bedroom saying, “Just a minute, Fred! I want to put on some lipstick!” LOLLOL There was no sound with the movies, of course, but when you watch them, you can remember a lot of the Christmas morning ritual. LOL
What a beautiful memory – from an early age I remember cutting our trees at a local tree farm (it still exists) and taking our kids there was fun too!
Thank you, Teresa! WOW, a tree farm! I lived in Oklahoma all my growing up years, and we always bought our tree at the grocery store where they’d stand them up by the front window. I would LOVE to go to a tree farm and pick out the perfect tree and bring it home. That IS a great memory!
My Grandma’s tree was magical! The tree always had to touch the ceiling. There were so many lights and ornaments, most of them brought from the “old world” and at that time over 100 years old. Then there was the tinsel! Oh how I disliked helping with that. It was the “real” metal tinsel that had to be placed perfectly and saved for the years to come. Grandma has been gone for many years but the memories of her Christmas trees will always be with me.
Oh, Carol, that sounds like the PERFECT tree! I was trying for that very kind of tree in Noelle’s Christmas Wish–her Aunt Icie had ordered some ornaments that were from Europe, hand blown glass. When I was writing about those, I was cringing to think of any of those getting broken. I only broke one ornament this year, but it was one of my favorites. BOO HOO! Anyhow, I bet that Christmas tree is something you will remember forever. What a great memory!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful story. I was the oldest of five. One year mom came home with all this beautiful tinsel. So shiny and pretty. She showed all of us how to put it on the tree. What?? She gave everyone of us a small amount. All five of us looked at each other and we all threw all the tinsel onto the tree. Yahhh it was on the tree and pretty. Moms shoulders just dropped. I am pretty sure she thought of something else. She never said anything, we just kept decorating the tree. For years afterwards, mom would ask if we wanted to put up tinsel. We said yes, so she gave us a few strands each and said “make the tree look pretty” and this became a ritual in our family.
HAHAHAAAA! OH MY LORD, how many times have I wanted to do that very thing! My mom was so particular, she’d hand out the tinsel and have to show ME in particular, every single year, how to take “One strand at a time…” and “Don’t just toss it on there! It will be in clumps!” LOL She had a lot of patience, but at that time, I didn’t. Our poor moms! LOL
One of my favorite family Christmas stories happened before I was born! When my older sister was little, my dad played Santa at the church Christmas pageant one year. My mom had concocted a story about him having to hold Santa’s reindeer to explain why he didn’t come to the service with them. The big moment arrived, and Santa entered from the back of the church. My sister was staring at him, and my mom thought the gig was up when my sister exclaimed, “Mama, why is Santa wearing Daddy’s boots?” My quick thinking mom explained that Santa’s boots must have had a hole in them, so Daddy switched with him temporarily! My sister bought the explanation, and to this day, every time I hear one of my favorite Christmas songs, “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy,” I think about that story.
Oh, how cute! Man, Kim, your mom was a fast thinker for sure! LOL Oddly enough, that’s how I figured out about the tooth fairy. My dad came in one morning and left some money under my pillow, and when he left, I woke up “sort of” and saw his boots just going round the corner of the hallway. LOLLOL I love that song, too, “Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy” and also “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”–another good one.
I wish I did but I do not.
My husband is like you, Debra. He doesn’t have a lot of memories of past Christmases or birthdays.
What a wonderful memory. Thank you for sharing.
It was my pleasure, Barbara! Thank you for reading!
We also saved tensile off of our tree every year and it wasn’t easy to do since we would have al old cedar tree that dad when out and cut. We always called them ice sickles.
Quilt Lady, we did, too–icicles was all I knew to call them for the longest time. I remember for a while, they made those in COLORS–red, green, blue…I never bought the colored kind, always the silver ones.
Cheryl, this is really special. You’re so lucky to have a lot of the written word and stories passed from your grandparents and mother. I really enjoyed this.
Thank you, Linda, that means a lot to me. Yes, I’m so lucky in that respect, but HOW I WISH I had listened more to Mom when she talked about those days! Why didn’t I? I was too young, I guess. I listened as I got older, but I should have listened better when I was younger, too! I would love to try to write down everything she told me. I might do it, yet!
I know exactly what you are talking about. Being the youngest of seven, I too was instructed on how exactly to do everything. We had the icecicles, tensil, and saved it from year to year. Money was tight and my parents had lived through the depression and saved everything. One of my favorite Christmas memories was one year Daddy bundled us up and we got in the car and rode up the road to see a live nativity. Daddy was a rural mail carrier and had to use our only car to carry the mail each day, so this was quite a treat. They had a live donkey and a sheep, and maybe a cow (not sure about the cow). That was my first time to see a live nativity. It made the story of Christ’s birth so real to me. I must have been six or seven. I will never forget it.
Sarah, the same with my parents, living through the Depression and the Dust Bowl days here in Oklahoma. My parents saved everything, too. How fun to go to a living nativity! THAT is a great memory I know you never will forget!
Sarah, you are also MY WINNER for Cowboys & Mistletoe! You won the piano ornament and the choice of one backlist book of mine! I tried to contact you by e-mail but haven’t heard back from you. PLEASE CONTACT ME:
fabkat_edit@yahoo.com (I may have to buy myself one of those piano ornaments, too!) LOL Congratulations!
My favorite memory of Christmas is getting together to make the tamales. The whole gathers together, even though its mostly the women and girls in the kitchen making them, while the men are watching tv or playing some game, but what I loved most is sitting around the table with all the aunts, grandma and mom, cousins, just making the food and talking about past Christmases and how times have changed, how everyone is doing and just making new memories. Laughing and joking and just enjoying the day together
Laura, what a WONDERFUL memory for you! That’s what famly is all about! I remember when I was growing up and how we would pack up the car and head for southeastern Oklahoma every Christmas Day. Sometmes my dad had to stay home if he was on duty to be called (oilfield), but no matter what, Mom and I would head down to the town where both sets of grandparents lived as well as a host of aunts and uncles and cousins from both sides of the family. What great memories! BTW, I have tried to find someone who makes tamales so we can have them for our Christmas Eve family dinner–had a lady who made them but then about two years ago, she stopped. BUT, I found a lady who is going to make some this year and I’m sooooo excited! CAN’T WAIT and I’m also buying some to freeze and eat later on! MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I don’t remember the book’s title, but we had one with a Christmas story about the robin that we used to hear each year. Before Christ was born the robin was plain brown. To keep the Holy Family warm, he fanned his wings to keep the fire in the stable going, singeing his breast. That’s why robins have red breasts.
OHHHHH, Mary! I never heard that one! I would love to find that story–I’m going on a google search. I love the legends of Christmas–probably because so many of them revolve around animals, and I am a bona fide ANIMAL LOVER. LOL Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing, and MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!
What a beautiful story Cheryl, Thank you so much for sharing it with us. When I was young and growing up with my siblings we too would hang the tinsel one by one and made sure they were hanging right in the middle of the limb and the hanging edges would be the same length , our dad would have us do this, they looked beautiful but it took a while to get it all done. When I was 7 years old our youngest of the family our little sister was born on Dec. 23, a little too close to Christmas , well the Dr. let our mom and our baby sister come home on the evening of Christmas Eve so that we could all spend Christmas together , it was certainly a very nice Christmas for all of us having our mom and our baby sister home for Christmas. I have 5 siblings. We would also make tamales on Christmas Eve, our dad would get the masa ready and our mom would cook the pork meat with red chili for the tamales, my siblings and I would make the tamales and then our mom and our grandmother would steam the tamales and we would have tamales on Christmas Day. Such very beautiful memories to cherish. (not entering this ebook giveaway, but Thank you. I am not tech savvy at all)
Alicia, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing today! Tamales are one of my favorite foods EVER. When we go to eat Mexican food, I always order tamales. One of the restaurants we go to pretty often has a menu that has about every combo known to man EXCEPT one that includes an enchilada and a tamale. So of course, that’s what I ask for every time I go in there, and they are glad to do it. LOL I’m looking forward to the homemade tamales I am ordering from a lady this year. I think they will be wonderful!
Thank you so much for sharing your memories with us. I also remember the tinsel on the trees when I was a child. Daddy would always buy our tree from a roadside stand and bring it home for us to decorate. We always had so much fun doing it. Mom would put the lights on, regular lights (they were much bigger than today’s lights) and the oil bubble lights that looked like candles. Them we would put garland, ornaments and tinsel on it. Oh the fun we had! The way you talk about decorating brings back so many memories! Thank you and may you have the Merriest Christmas ever.
Ruth, I remember those lights! And the outdoor lights were even bigger than the ones that were the “normal” size for indoor trees. I still love those lights the best, much more than the small ones we have today. I probably have a couple of strings of those upstairs in the attic but I’d be afraid to plug them in at this point. LOL My sister had some of those bubble lights she always used in her house when she decorated. I loved those things. This will be the year I will start giving my son his ornaments I bought through the years for him. When my daughter gets settled in once she finishes law school, I’ll give her a box of hers, too. What great memories. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!
When my Grandma and Grandpa Walker when they were alive every single year my Grandma pulled out the same old fruit cake and just like every year no one eats any not even Grandma and that fruit cake never molded that I could see we all would laugh about no one wanting any and back under the couch the fruitcake went until Grandma pulled it over and over several Christmases after the fact. Fun fact: Shelf life of a fruit cake is 4 weeks/1 month in cool/dry place, in the refrigerator 6 month & 1 year in the freezer so that fruitcake always got out was way past its shelf life.
HAHAHAHAAAA! OMGOSH! I am laughing so hard. BECAUSE….I LOVE FRUITCAKE! LOL I would have been the relative that would have gotten a knife and cut into that baby and had a piece. LOL That’s a great story, Crystal!
I loved that we drew names and made homemade gifts from homemade ice cream with all all trimmings for a banana split. Or a wreath, angel or Christmas ornaments. I miss doing this now that everyone is doing their own thing.
Charlene, I remember when I was little, there was a “rage” of making ornaments with styrofoam balls, ribbon, large sequins in Christmas shapes, and the smaller sequins, and also little beads. You attached all these thing with little tiny pins, and use a pipe cleaner for the “hook”–Oh, my goodness, I had not thought of making those in years. Did you all ever make those? This was in the late 60’s, early 70’s. Soooo much fun!
My Dad was deployed in Viet Nam the Christmas of my Junior year in High School. I remember that he had ordered a box of anthurium flowers to be delivered to my Mom. They arrived a couple of days before Christmas and, as a surprise for my Mom, I took them to a local florist to see if they could make an arrangement. The owner was the husband of one of my High School teachers and he told me he would do it and asked what sort of arrangement I wanted. I said that we were having my grandparents over for Christmas dinner and would like something that would look good on the table. He told me to come back in a couple of hours to pick it up. He did a wonderful job and arranged them in a beautiful dish so that they were not just in a clump. I had taken my birthday money with me to pay for the arrangement and he said that I didn’t owe anything. He was a wonderful man and I thanked him profusely. It is a wonderful memory that I recall every year and remind my younger sister about it.
Oh, wow, Karin. There are some wonderful, kind people in this ol’ world! How NICE of him! And how sweet of you to want to do something so special and use your birthday money for it. One Christmas when my daughter was about 13 and my son was 10, I had taken them to the mall–they insisted I drop them off and come back in 2 hours. (Times were differen then, believe me.) I did, and when I picked them up, they were both just glowing. On Christmas I saw why. They had gone to Penney’s to the photography studio and talked them into taking some proof pictures of them, and putting them in a frame–there were about 6 pictures, total. Jessica had saved HER birthday money and spent it (and Casey had added whatever he had) and that was their Christmas present to me. I treasure that thoughtfulness and sacrifice above all else–I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a better gift, and probably never will. I bet your mom felt the same about what you did.
I always used the metal tinsel growing up. We always saved it year to year. I have 3 pigs I found on sale but haven’t used because my cats always poo pulled it off tree.
It won’t post my comment. I always used the metal tinsel growing up. We always saved it year to year. I have 3 pigs I found on sale but haven’t used because my cats always poo pulled it off tree.
Jane, sometimes it’s contrary, but YAY, it got posted! LOL We never had a tree that didn’t have those icicles. Mine has them today–I should have included a picture. We had a cat that used to climb the tree every single day and knock it over. Can’t tell you how many ornaments got broken. I finally quit putting those special ornaments on the tree at all. After a couple of years, he stopped doing it. I was so thankful. LOL
I really need to get on line earlier. By the time I got here last night, the winner had been chosen. Still a post I wanted to read.
We always went out to the woods to cut down a Scotch Pine to use for our Christmas tree. My mother loved Scotch Pine and would make garlands for the moulding around the top of the walls in the kitchen. Unfortunately, she developed an allergy to the pine after yers of handling it. We would still get one, but she wouldn’t touch it. We had lots of cousins (50+) and were the only ones who lived in the country. This meant they visited many weekends during the year. During the holidays, they spent a lot of time with us, often spending the night. We had a terrific sledding hill out behind our house and spent hours on it sledding and tobogganing. We would trudge home for hot chocolate or hot cider and if we were lucky, cookies.
Those were good days and cost nothing to enjoy.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a great 2025.
Man, Patricia! I’m so envious! When I was little, I BEGGED for a Scotch pine tree every year because I just thought they were soooo gorgeous. But they were more expensive and Mom always said no. I wish we could have gone out to the woods and cut our own, but we neve did do that. It sounds like you had an idyllic childhood. I had a lot of cousins, too, and was always so thrilled when the holidays came and everyone gathered at my grandparents’ house. Both sets of grandparents lived in the same town, as well as a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins from both sides of our family. It was great to get to see everyone during the holiday times! I’m so glad you came by and commented. Always so good to see you here.