Plastic candles in the windows. I play it safe with white lightbulbs, but, my grandma would use orange or red or blue lights in the candles, sometimes all of the colors mixed together. She still does this, come to think of it.

Little plastic decorations that sit here and there, such as a little plastic nativity scene that’s only about five inches high, brown plastic with little plastic figures inside, and metallic glitter on top (I’ll send a photo.) These were cheapies that kids would get from someone like a Sunday School teacher. They ended up somewhere in the house like on a bedroom dresser — they could not compete with the big nativity scene that, in our house, always sat on top of the TV, of all places. (The TV was in a big wooden cabinet, of course, so there was plenty of room — you couldn’t do this with a flat screen TV, of course!)

The right music, too — gotta have the “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” album by the Ray Coniff Singers. Also, those old collections of Christmas songs put out by Firestone Tires. I think you can find this music all on CDs now, but, my mom still has the old albums.

We had an aluminum tree with the colorwheel when I was a kid, as Stephan described. But, alas, it was sold in a yard sale when my parents moved in the mid-80s. I hope it’s still bringing joy to someone out there.

I see a photo gallery in the works.