Everyone comes from somewhere. For Taylor Alison Swift, that somewhere was a small town of less than five thousand people called West Reading, Pennsylvania. As a young child, her parents purchased a property that contained a Christmas tree farm. All during the warmer seasons of her childhood, trees would be tended and cared for by Swift’s family. As the temperatures grew colder in late November, the Swift’s property would become a business that welcomed customers to come and select a tree to serve as the focal point of their own family holiday festivities. Taylor Swift was a mere child when all of this was happening but she firmly remembers the family tree lot being ringed with lights that shone like stars. She grew up surrounded by the happy sounds of other children all exhorting their moms or dads to pick this tree or that because it was absolutely perfect and they just had to have it. Young couples having their first Christmas together would hold hands as they strolled the grounds and often would seal the deal with their chosen tree by sharing a loving kiss. Next to being at Santa’s own village, it is difficult to pick a place that had a warmer, happier atmosphere than a Christmas tree farm during the holidays. That was the world in which young Taylor Swift was raised. The memories she holds of those days filled her young heart with love. It gave her a basis for comparison with the Christmas experiences she would go on to have as an adult. For as successful a singer as Taylor Swift would go on to be, she always knew that the true Christmas magic lay not in the baubles and trinkets being hawked online, it was in the warm shared family times spent around the Christmas tree together. That was the feeling she was searching for as a grown up woman.
In 2018, after concluding one of her world tours, Taylor Swift felt the need to recharge her emotional batteries as it were and so she revisited her childhood home. Sitting once again in her former bedroom, surrounded by the aroma of the trees that surrounded the house, Swift was overcome with that sense of place that grounds so many of us when we find it. She felt in her heart that feeling of being home where life is safe and warm and she was happy and carefree. As so often happens with Swift, she channeled those personal thoughts and feelings into the lyrics of a song about Christmas and how it feels to her when all is right with the world. That song was called “Christmas Tree Farm”. It was formally released in 2019 and has gone on to become regarded as one of the new classics among modern holiday songs. The video for “Christmas Tree Farm” was created by Taylor Swift herself. It uses archival home movies of Swift as a child on the very tree farm of which she sings. The atmosphere certainly looks bucolic. If even only a mere fraction of what is presented in this video resembles the actual reality of her childhood then Taylor Alison Swift is one lucky person to have grown up in such a world. All children should be so lucky, too.
The song “Christmas Tree Farm” actually feels like three songs in one to me when I listen to it. First of all, it begins in a slow, almost jazzy sound that reminds me of those early chestnuts from the likes of Nat King Cole and others of his era. Then, just as the introductory segment is winding down, a series of jingling bells begin to shake. This causes me to harken back to how the Mariah Carey song “All I Want For Christmas Is You” begins. If the beginning of “Christmas Tree Farm” is meant as a tribute then that message has been received. As the bells jingle, Taylor Swift launches into a heartfelt bit of singing that speaks of finding the same joy of Christmas that she felt as a little girl while now being safely held in the arms of the man she loves. There is a feeling of safety and peacefulness that comes when you find true love. It is that feeling that Swift equates with the sanctity of Christmas for children. Many who listen to this song say that it is one of Taylor Swift’s most emotive tunes, which is really saying something for a singer/songwriter like Swift who is known for the raw emotion of her lyrics. As modern holiday songs go, “Christmas Tree Farm” by Taylor Swift is rapidly becoming a standard of the season. The young ladies in my home certainly like it. Naturally, I have been encouraged to listen to it and love it, too.
I can’t say that “Christmas Tree Farm” is my favourite holiday tune but I can certainly vouch for the sentiments behind it. As regular readers of this blog, you will be aware that I have always felt blessed to have been raised as I was on Cape Breton Island. I always remember my childhood Christmases as being filled with love and busy with visits from family, friends and neighbours. I remember the sounds of carolling and the smell of good food cooking in the kitchen. I remember the sound of laughter and good conversations all around me. It was a world of coloured lights and walls filled with Christmas cards. The tree was always a real tree (at least in my younger days). That tree was always bathed in tinsel and lights and ornaments, both delicate and crafty. Under the tree was always a mountain of presents. I always loved being near the tree. The lights felt warm. The presents attracted my eye, no surprise there. But the thing I remember most about it all was the aroma that came from the tree. A real live spruce or pine tree always has such a glorious smell. As much as Taylor Swift may have had her heart refilled with love and the groundedness of being at home when she visited that tree farm back in 2018, for me that same reconnection with the Christmases of my childhood comes whenever I get the opportunity to smell a real Christmas tree. The tree we currently have comes from a box that is hidden away in our basement for most of the year. It is the furthest thing from being a real tree as it gets. For now, it is more than adequate enough to serve as the centrepiece of our own living room during the holidays. But just once before I die, I would give anything to experience a Christmas with a real tree once again. To have that smell back in my home would be magical. If that day comes to pass and we end up going as a family to a tree farm near us, perhaps we will also find young children who live there in a world where special dreams come true for others each and every day, just like Taylor Swift did as a little girl. Maybe those kids will also take that feeling and grow up to change the world, just like Taylor Swift is doing right now. Who knows? Anything is possible when it comes to the magic of Christmas.
I would be hard pressed to find any entertainer who had as successful a year in 2024 as Taylor Swift did. She is, without question, completely in a league of her own in terms of the impact she has on the world of music. She is a role model for a legion of young followers who view her success as a roadmap to their own personal empowerment. She seems happy and in love with football star Travis Kelce. Their relationship is as grounded as it can be given their shared status as headliners on the biggest stages that the world can offer. She has just concluded a record-shattering world tour called the Eras Tour in which she performed for millions of fans all over the world, grossing sales revenues that would make even the likes of Donald Trump blush. And yet, through it all, this young woman from West Reading, Pennsylvania shoulders the pressures and responsibilities that come with being the biggest star in the world with a sense of grace that is undeniable. I can’t even begin to imagine how she balances all the demands for her time that she faces on a daily basis. And yet she does. If today’s song choice is any indication, much of her ability to handle fame with the aplomb that she does is rooted in the sight and smell of Christmas trees and all that it means to her in her heart. Taylor Swift was raised on the magic and the joy of Christmas and has carried those feelings with her out into a world in which she is the brightest of the stars that shine. It can’t be easy always having to be “on brand” as Taylor Swift the big star but I imagine it is somewhat easier due to how she was raised as a child. Knowing how it feels to experience real love and safety and warmth as a child makes it easier to avoid mistaking the trappings of fame for real love later on as an adult. Taylor Swift is blessed, as I feel blessed, to have had the childhood that she did and the requisite Christmas memories that she associates with it. I am sure those connections are rekindled every time she sings “Christmas Tree Farm”. For her listeners, she has provided them with a vision of how the spirit of Christmas can be for them as well. It is a roadmap that includes a stop under the stars with mittened hands and warm hearts at a tree farm nearest to you. There is, indeed, such a thing as the magic of Christmas and, let me tell you, it smells magnificent!
The link to the video for the song “Christmas Tree Farm” by Taylor Swift can be found here. ***The lyrics version is here.
The link to the official website for Taylor Swift can be found here.
***As always, all original content contained in this post remains the sole property of the author. No portion of this post shall be reblogged, copied or shared in any manner without the express written consent of the author. ©2024 http://www.tommacinneswriter.com
The magic of Christmas came to me when I was young. I’d gone to help pick out a Christmas tree. Snow was already several inches deep and more was falling. Bored with the Christmas tree selection process, I’d drifted away and was soon alone among the freshly cut trees. Hard snow was coming down. I stood among the trees, embraced by their pine smell, listening to the silence that heavy snow fall brings, watching the fat wet flakes drop out of the sky, sometimes catching them on my tongue, becoming mesmerized by the smell of snow. Moments like that descend on me still sometimes, sixty years later. Snow at Christmas has a smell. You’re fortunate if you can experience it. If you can’t, it can’t be explained. Magic can rarely be explained to those who don’t understand.
Cheers
Lovely memory, my friend. There is magic everywhere when we know how to truly see. Merry Christmas, Michael. Thanks for finding me. I appreciate your presence here.