House of Usher shirt
People strung cranberries and popcorn, starched little crocheted stars to hang, made paper chains and House of Usher shirt had glass ornaments, usually from Germany, about two inches wide, they would get old and lose their shine. There was real metal tinsel too, that you could throw on with the argument about single strands and clumps. Each side had it’s followers. In the fifties various lights were a big deal, with bubble lights, that had bubbles in the candle portion that moved when plugged in. There were big primary colored lights strung around the tree too, nothing small or ‘tasteful’ Christmas trees were meant to be an explosion of color and light. I took Styrofoam balls and a type of ribbon that would stick to itself when wet, and wrapped the balls, and then used pins to attach sequins and pearls for a pretty design in the sixties. I also cut ‘pop-it’ beads meant for a necklace into dangling ornaments with a hook at the top to put it on the tree. Wrapped cut-up toilet paper tubes in bright wools too. Kids still remember making those.

House of Usher shirt
The first thing to know is that the House of Usher shirt of Matthew’s Gospel used the Greek word magi, which does not actually mean ‘wise men’, but is a reference to the priests of the then-great Zoroastrian religion of the Persian Empire. When Matthew says they came from the east, he was alluding to the direction of Babylon and Persia. It is, of course, inconceivable that Zoroastrian priests would be in the least interested in the birth of a purported king of Judah. It is scientifically inconceivable that a star could be followed so accurately to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem and actually stand over the very house where Jesus was. However, our author (he was anonymous and very unlikely to have been called Matthew) knew that the magi were well known for their wisdom and for their knowledge of astrology, so he knew this nativity account would be plausible.

