How (a lot!) of Duct tape saved this family's sad Charlie Brown-looking Christmas tree

I dearly love Christmas and everything surrounding it. I’m the guy who starts listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween, and I start bugging Anita, my wife, about setting up the tree and hanging decorations.

It’s also a time for reflection and reminiscing with family members. Most of all, in years past, I enjoyed spending time with my oldest sister, Georgia. She was my guiding light as a youngster, my hero who was always there for me.

I lost her recently to illness, and I’m sitting here teary-eyed as I write, the combo of deep emotions tied to Christmas and family.

But it’s all good, and I am thankful and blessed to have had such a wonderful sister in my life.

Feeling stressed? Try these 4 steps to help you have a calm, peaceful holiday season

A major item on the agenda when my family gathered for holidays was the telling of funny stories from the past. We have a ton of them, and we would go on for hours, laughing ourselves silly. We laugh because it’s fun, but increasingly more evidence is surfacing that laughing is a very healthy thing to do.

Laughter as good medicine gained prominence in 1990 with the classic book by Norman Cousins entitled “Anatomy of an Illness,” in which he chronicles his journey from being bedridden with a crippling and irreversible disease to laughing his way back to health.

Despite his illness, he made the decision to see humor wherever he could, plus he pursued all manner of triggers to make himself laugh, like watching reruns of old Groucho Marx movies and the TV show, "Candid Camera."

There is solid research supporting laughter as good medicine and how it impacts us. Several studies have compared physiologic responses to varying situations, like watching movies, comedies versus dramas, with interesting results.

After laughing while watching funny movies, blood vessels were dilated, increasing blood flow throughout the body, especially important for the heart. There was also improvement in the immune system with an increase in antibodies that fight infection.

In patients with diabetes, the response to insulin was improved, resulting in a lower blood glucose (sugar) level. A round of laughter is relaxing and promotes better sleep, a critically important contributor to good health.

So here is my gift of laughter to you this holiday season.

Duct tape and the Charlie Brown Christmas tree

One of the many funny stories that always surfaced at family gatherings was dubbed The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree. I was 10 years old at the time, Christmas was coming on fast, and everyone was hustling and bustling.

Everyone except my father, the world’s most accomplished procrastinator. No matter the issue, urgent or not, he would do nothing until it hit at least DEFCON 3, the Cuban Missile Crisis stage, the point at which my mother would go full throttle to get him moving. In this case, it was two days before Christmas, and we still didn’t have a tree.

For weeks, my sisters and I begged my father to get a tree, but he always had some goofy excuse. Finally, my mother pushed the DEFCON button, and off we went tree hunting.

I remember how cold it was as my father and I walked to the car, his steamy breath pouring out as he mumbled bad words. I knew it was best to keep quiet on the drive to the nearest tree lot about three miles from home.

When we pulled up, it was dark except for a flickering light coming from a small shed. I searched through the windshield but could see only a few trees remaining on the lot in the distance beyond the shed.

“Dad, I think we need to go somewhere else.”

Unflappable, my father pointed at a tree lying on the ground and said, “That looks like a good one.”

I leaned forward trying to get a better look, but it was too dark. I was told to stay in the car, which was fine with me.

You may like: From resistance training to bands, here are 3 exercises to fight aching joints as you age

As my father got out of the car and approached the tree, a man came out of the shed.

“I’ll give you a buck for this one,” my father said, holding out $1.

Done deal.

My father grabbed the tree, tossed it in the trunk and tied it down. Mission accomplished, and I could tell my father was feeling pretty good about getting this done in record time, so he could get back quickly to his recliner chair and TV. He hummed a song, then started on his jokes, ones I had heard a hundred times. Even so, I laughed to keep the mood going.

All was well until we got home and brought the tree into the house. My father entered like a conquering hero, presenting a tree that now, in the light, looked very much like a taller version of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, pathetic, with only a few scraggly branches.

When my mother saw the tree, she just stood there, hands on hips, staring and shaking her head, then she stormed off with my sisters who were crying.

Slamming doors conveyed a message that was quite clear, except to my father, who shrugged at me like he didn’t have a clue why everyone was upset. What now, I thought, hoping he would do something to save the day, as he often did at the last minute.

Instead, without a word, he walked out the front door. Wow, I thought, Christmas is ruined completely now.

I went to their bedroom to console my sisters, but it was hopeless, and I knew it was best to stay clear of my mother. About an hour later, I heard the front door open and, hoping it was my father returning, I ran to see. He stood there, smiling, with a huge arm-full of tree branches. He told me to go get the Duct tape, my father’s solution to just about anything.

'A Christmas spirit.': Every day is Christmas at this holiday-themed Louisville café

“Huh? Duct tape?”

I did as I was told, and we started taping branches onto the tree, the longest ones at the bottom, then the shorter ones as we went up. It took quite a while, and I know it’s hard to believe, but the tree turned out great, symmetrical, and full.

It wasn’t easy coaxing my mother and sisters out of their rooms, but finally they came out. When my mother saw the tree, she seemed stunned, then she started laughing so hard, tears ran down her face. My heart soared as we joyfully decorated that Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I might add that, for the first time ever, my father pitched in and helped hang ornaments and lights.

Smart move.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Reach Bryant Stamford, a professor of kinesiology and integrative physiology at Hanover College, at stamford@hanover.edu.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: How Duct tape saved this family's Charlie Brown-looking Christmas tree