Taylor Hicks ~~ The Perfect Tree...

From his autobiography, “Heart Full of Soul,” Taylor Hicks writes:

“My first memory is picture-perfect—like a postcard I wish someone had sent me.

“It was Christmastime, and I remember that my mother and I were visiting for the holidays with my aunt Katherine and Uncle Dan at their farm in Cullman, Alabama. At the time I must have been four years old. Aunt Katherine and Uncle Dan were family on my mother’s side, and they lived out in the country in a big old white farmhouse. The place was peaceful and welcoming, surrounded by a pretty peach orchard and more cattle than I’d ever seen before.

“…that December the farm had the look of a real-life winter wonderland. Strangely, though, it’s not our Christmas morning I vividly recall—or whatever presents Santa happened to leave under the tree.

“Instead, the thing I’ll never forget is the complete thrill of searching for our family Christmas tree a few days earlier. The air was frigid that day and the snow was falling gently and quietly. I recall my mother bundling me up in a winter coat. Then—along with the rest of the family—the two of us went running out into all that snow. I remember how thrilling it felt to heading off into the gorgeous frozen pine forest, which was now totally draped in white—all of us in hot pursuit of the same thing, the absolutely perfect tree.”

I remember country Christmases. My older brother once wrote about trudging through the snow—see, it does snow in Kentucky but not a lot—with our father to cut a tree. There were few pine forests, so it was some kind of indescribable evergreen. He told of my mother standing on the porch with disbelief, and perhaps a little disdain, in her eyes as they dragged behind them a tree that could only be described as the “first Charlie Brown Christmas tree.”

Hickory nuts were collected for a Christmas fruit cake. There were large peppermint sticks which I still insist that my children and grandchildren get in their stockings. I’m sure there were some presents but I don’t remember them except for one…a metal clown bank. When you pressed on it, its tongue stuck out to collect coins (pennies, I’m sure) and drop them in the bank. I remember going around to all the relatives for a few pennies. A real treat were oranges sent from an aunt in Michigan.

Christmas is all about family.

I wish you the perfect Christmas tree—the Taylor kind, or the Charlie Brown kind!

They were both perfect!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and those with whom you share this beautiful time!


The Taylor Hicks Community



“Heart Full of Soul” by Taylor Hicks, Random House, 2007.
Available on Amazon.com