If you still don't have your Christmas tree up, here's a solution like we did when we were kids. You have to get up real early, before the neighbors, even.

We had no money (it was the Great Depression) but there was a big bunch of fir trees near our house. With my brother Russell, who was 10 (I was 8) we would take Dad's hand saw and climb one of those fir trees. Russell would hoist me up on his shoulders where I could stand high enough to get a branch to climb up further. I was a little tree monkey, making my way to the very top. After a few minutes of cutting, it would fall to the ground where Russ was waiting.

We had a wooden apple box near our garage. We cut a ragged round hole in the bottom to stick the tree through and poked some wire into the sides of the box to wrap it around the tree trunk to keep it from falling over.

It was ready to carry into the house. We never thought about watering the tree. We figured once it was cut, it was cut and that was it. We cleared a space near a wall. It was time to decorate.

We went upstairs to find cotton and some paste glue to put windows on the outside of the box which we covered with red crepe paper from mom's special drawer where she saved everything. Wow! It was beautiful.

The red box looked exactly like a real house from the North Pole especially after we took a piece of wood and nailed it on the end of the house and covered it with fake crepe paper bricks.

Somehow we found an old string of electric Christmas lights and plugged them into the wall praying they would work.

Yay!,.. only a couple of lights were bad. We often had lights left over from the previous year to use. We carefully replaced the bad ones. We could not afford to buy new ones anyway.

Time for the ornaments. Ask your big brother. He does most of the bulb hanging because he is naturally taller.

Use the fanciest ornaments in the front. No one looks at the tree from the wall. I like the ones with fake feathers.

Then you can put on the icicles, which I call rain. Don't just throw them on the limbs but take one and hang it carefully so it looks real. You most likely will have to buy some new ones-- they only cost 5 cents. They don't look good if they are crumpled.

If you have a silvery tall ornament that looks like a tree top, put it on the tip of the tree and it will look great.

Be careful if you don't have a ladder. Do not stand on a chair. It is dangerous. Have your brother boost you again. He likes lifting things.

Turn on the lights when you are done hanging the ornaments.

Now go wake up mom and dad and your sisters to present them with your gift. They will be real happy and 'cept for the new "rain" it was free.

The neighbors will envy you.