I'll be home for Christmas......

Ok, Imagine this, close your eyes if you need to. It’s Mid-December, there’s a light snow on the ground, couple of inches of fluffy white powder. It’s lightly falling from the sky in BIG snowflakes the size of Maple leafs. You are sitting on the couch, wrapped up with the one you love, a crackling fire popping from across the room. Softly you hear a favorite Christmas song coming through the radio……”I’ll be home for Christmas,” Bing Crosby croons in his buttery smooth voice. “You can count on me, Please have snow and mistletoe, and presents ON the tree……..” SSSSSSSSSSSSSSCCCCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Either Jam Master Jay just broke in with some waxy remix or you jumped up to see if you heard that one right…..Presents ON THE TREE? What the HECK?
Doing a little bit of research….are ya catching on to HOW I know things, I found out that….
Limbs of the Tree
• Although it is most popular for presents to be placed beneath the Christmas tree, earlier traditions included tying gifts to the limbs of the tree.

According to Robert Chambers, author of "The Book of Days, A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities in Connection With the Calendar," "In Germany, (in the late 1800's), Christmas Eve is for children the most joyous night in the year, as they feast their eyes on the magnificence of the Christmas tree, and rejoice in the presents which have been provided for them on its branches by their parents...every branch glittering with little lighted tapers, while all sorts of ornaments and gifts are suspended from the branches..."

Read more: The History of Presents Under the Christmas Tree | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6623953_history-presents-under-christmas-tree.html#ixzz18ca53FqQ

Could this lyric be in reference to a potential German Tradition of hiding a glass pickle in the tree? Yes, you read that correctly, both times more than likely. There is a supposed German tradition of hanging a Glass Pickle ornament in the tree on Christmas Eve and the most observant child that would Find the ornament would receive an extra present from St. Nickolas. Problem with that is that German traditions say that St. Nick, not to be confused with Santa Claus would visit children on December 5th. Lending some support to the claim is that on Christmas Eve, Children would open presents from the Christkindl(Christ Child). Maybe St. Nick left that extra present behind? Note that the German Christmas holiday was basically a month long event that is referred to as the Advent, which starts the first Sunday after November 26th. The Advent tradition is actually rather new as far as time is concerned, starting some time after the end of WWI.

Well, that was a side note that went too far. Back to presents ON the tree. The custom of erecting a Christmas Tree can be historically traced to 15th century Livonia (present-day Estonia and Latvia) and 16th century Northern Germany. According to the first documented uses of a Christmas tree in Estonia, in 1441, 1442, and 1514 the Brotherhood of the Blackheads erected a tree for the holidays in their brotherhood house in Reval (now Tallinn). At the last night of the celebrations leading up to the holidays, the tree was taken to the Town Hall Square where the members of the brotherhood danced around it. In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square where the young men “went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame”. In that period, the guilds started erecting Christmas trees in front of their guildhalls: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Marburg professor of European ethnology) found a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small tree was decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers" and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.

Of course, everything evolves and money dictates most evolution these days. It’s hard to hang a 52 inch flat panel TV or a Sony Xbox from a branch of a tree in your living room. I’m sure that lead to presents UNDER the tree. But let’s take a look at what this song was about for a minute. This is a song about people being away from their families during the holidays…So, when you are enjoying your holiday with your family this year, remember your own loved ones that can’t be with you and more importantly, remember those serving our country in faraway lands that can’t be with their families and let’s pray for their safe returns.