Tumbleweed Christmas Tree
Recorded by Red Steagall
Written by Andy Wilkinson
C
It was a rough year for a rough neck's children
F
Hard times and harder living
C G7
We moved when the rent come due and it come due once a week
C F
That year in late December found us in an old house trailer
C G7 C
West of Odessa near a town they call No Tree
F
To poor to pay attention daddy lived on good intentions
C G7
He intended Christmas to be just what we believed
C F
He drove to town in the company pickup when he didn’t have sawbuck
C G7 C
For the price of a Christmas tree he brought back a tumbleweed
F C
Christmas Eve in No Tree Texas wind blowing through the cactus
G7 F G7 C
Santa Clause was a rich kids saint and a poor kid’s dream
F C
But I’d trade every fancy present I ever had or ever will get
G7 F G7 C
For the night of the tumbleweed Christmas tree
F
Daddy sat it on the dinette table momma made a newsprint angel
C G7
Ornaments of tinfoil scraps buttons on a string
C F
It took us all night to decorate it when we got done I have to say that
C G7 C
It was the prettiest tumbleweed I’d ever seen
F
Wind rocked the trailer like a cradle while we sang our Christmas carols
C G7
Setting on the sofa on the duck tape naugahyde
C F
Daddy looked proud as big city banker momma trying hard to be thankful
C G7 C
But looking at the tumbleweed she laughed until she cried
Repeat #3
F
And I was just six going on seven but being poor was an education
C G7
And that night I learned a lot about just what Christmas means
C F
It means love and it means loving it means money don’t mean nothing
C G7 C
And it means a tumbleweed can make a Christmas tree
Repeat #3
F C
But I’d trade every fancy present I ever had or ever will get
G7 F G7 C
For the night of the tumbleweed Christmas tree
