'We never put lights on the tree': Son shares how his father's Christmas lie changed the course of family Christmas for 30 years

Families and tradition are synonymous with one another; it might be as simple as some small silly thing that you do together every year during the holidays, or it might be a serious, all-encompassing system of decorum that members must abide by. As most of us aren't part of some pseudo-royalty billionaire trust or vying for the succession of our father's multinational mass media company—chances are, more often than not, that most of our family traditions land towards the sillier end of the spectrum… We might not even know why we continue to do these things or why the family started doing these things in the first place—but we rest easy in the relative peace of knowing that no matter what happens or changes in our lives or in the world at large, at least we can look forward to the annoying, but wholesome, dependability of family tradition.

This family had one strange tradition: They never, ever put lights on their Christmas tree. Throughout the duration of their family Christmases, lights were strictly forbidden from the tree on account of the fact that they apparently presented a "fire hazard," a risk that was evidenced by the tree apparently catching fire during one of the couple's first Christmases together. Well, as it turned out, that's not exactly what had happened, but, rather, this tradition was the result of a not-so-convincing lie that had been told 30-odd years ago.

See this eye-watering tale of family Christmas affairs, as shared by this internet user on a popular online community.

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Posted by Brad Dickson