The Christmas Helicopter

My family (well... mostly just my Mom) was/is known for keeping the Christmas decorations up much longer than they should.  Every year they seemed to stay up later and later.   

My mom loves the way her home looks with ice-cycle lights.  She didn’t/doesn’t think they should be considered seasonal but remain up year round.  So... for over a year (Yes, OVER a year) my mom turned on her Christmas lights every night.  As the months passed, a section would go out here and there.  By the time Christmas came around again... New ice-cycle lights were hung and the year started over again. To combat this, my sister Julie and I bought some decorative garden/porch lights for mothers day to replace the ice-cycle lights that had, once again, mostly all burned out.  She was happy with the exchange, as I am sure the neighbors were too.

Years before that, (I believe it was 1991) Christmas came and went and we were well into February and it was still very festive at our house!  Us kids were home alone on a Sunday.  Our parents were at church and I am not entirely sure why we were not with them.  We were playing with our favorite holiday decoration.  It was a wooden german nativity pyramid (Die Weihnachtspyramide, when you light the candles around the base the rising heat caused the wooden blades at the top to spin.  Great fun.)  

This looks similar to the one we had.

We lit the small candles and the blades started to whirl. We adding extra candles and it spun even faster.  At this point most of my siblings had lost interest in the spinning entertainment, so it was just Julie and I.  We needed more heat... we wanted to really make it spin.

Julie had the idea to place it on the wall mounted heater, so we did... and we cranked it up as high as it would go.  It worked.  The blades whipped around so fast it was a miracle it didn’t start to hover like a tiny christmas helicopter.  

Then... one of the many candles, (slightly melted) dislodged and fell through the grate.  A split second later flames shot out of the heater.  (Julie recalls that they were 12 feet high, I believe she was right)  There was no time to think, only to react.  

So we ran.  We all ran from the house yelling.  

Note: I use the term "house" very loosely... we were living in a camping trailer with the an Okie addition built on.  Originally the trailer had a small living area, kitchenette, TINY bathroom with accordion folding doors and a small sleeping area.  My parents slept in the living area, my sisters and I in the bedroom and my brothers in a tent outside.  After a few months of those arrangements my dad started construction on the addition.  My dad added 2 small bedrooms and a living room.

We ran to our neighbors, who also happened to be our aunt and uncle.  Our uncle Paul grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran back with us.  The fire hadn’t really spread it was just toasting the wall and ceiling like marshmallows.  Uncle Paul easily extinguished the flames and everything was fine.  

Needless to say, that Christmas pyramid didn’t make it.

We stood back and stared at the wall, ceiling and puddles of red and green candle wax on the floor.  It looked terrible.   Julie wouldn’t come back inside.  The rest of us calmed down pretty quickly, we opened the doors & windows to air out the room then we sat down to watch a movie.  Julie sat in the doorway, still outside while still being able to see the television in the living room.

I honestly do not remember my parents reactions when they returned home from church. I am sure my mom was just happy that no one was hurt while my dad was mentally calculating the amount of drywall he’d need to make the repairs, along with a candlewax free wall heater. 

A few year later we all saw a Simpsons episode where Homer stays home from church and the house catches on fire.  We all thought it was very funny.