Disco Christmas trees

"In the disco era, we hung our Christmas tree from the upper reaches of the ceiling, its lights dazzling like a mirror ball as it worryingly spun. Another year, my mother, disinclined to go out in the snow and buy a tree, just painted one onto the wall."

Isabel Fonseca wrote an enjoyable to read article in the November 14th issue of the New York Times' T Magazine about what it was like to grow up in an apartment (pictured above) with artistic parents in Greenwich Village in the 1960s and 1970s.

My generation is in some ways more cautious than the last couple of preceding generations were. I'd argue that this is often by necessity (it's hard to be footloose when you start out your adult life with tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. Or to be whimsical decorating a house that you've mortgaged for hundreds of thousands, since home prices have also risen precipitously in the past couple of decades.)

Still, I'd like to bring some of that old school freestyle spirit back into my life, especially when I have children of my own. "It's too snowy outside. Mom's just going to paint the Christmas tree on the wall this year" sounds like the start of a fun holiday season.

 

Comments
By ryan at 2:52 p.m. Dec. 10, 2014
great post! agreed. and that quote is ridiculously awesome.
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