Describe a Christmas tree as a child, when did you put it up and decorate it?

I don’t remember any special tree as we were growing up but we always had a real pretty tree because we owned some property up on Monroe Mountain and my dad would always go up and get a nice fresh tree. What I remember is how good our house smelt. After my father died my brothers always got mother a tree from the mountain. Russell called them stick trees because he was used to the big bushy kind. Mother loved to decorate so she would have all of the Christmas done by Thanksgiving and give to us at dinner then she would spend the rest of the time decorating the house and tree. Each year it was different. One year she sprayed pine cones pink, had pink lights and pink ribbon tied to the pinecones, it was gorgeous.