The Vine: December 10, 2010
This one might be too obscure even for the awesome powers of the Nation, but I figure it can’t hurt to try. There’s this song that my dad always sang when we were going to get our Christmas tree, but he has no idea where he originally heard it or what it’s called.
The lyrics as he remembers them are:
A tree, a tree,
We’re gonna get a tree,
And trim it up with shining lights,
For everyone to see.
If you’re feeling brave, here’s an mp3 of me singing it.
For background info, my dad was born in 1950 in Philadelphia and grew up in the city (my personal theory is that it was a radio jingle for some local place selling trees and that’s why no one’s heard of it). Googling various quoted strings at one point turned up a Yahoo! question, meaning that at least one person other than my dad heard this song back in the day, but my most recent Google misadventures only get a Leo’s Lyrics Forum result, and I can tell from the screen name that it’s my dad asking the question.
Any hints as to the song’s origins would be muchly appreciated.
Thanks,
Singing in Obscurity
*****
Dear Sars,
I’m hoping you and your readers can help me with a recurring winter issue. Basically, I have a big, cold head.
One year in college when I went to buy glasses the woman helping me told me, in a joking voice, “Boy, you sure have a big, fat head.” That one’s been circulating with family and friends for years, but it’s true: for a woman, I have a larger-than-average head. Right now I wear men’s hats, winter and summer, but I’d love to have a really cute women’s winter hat that didn’t try to squeeze my head to death, or flatten my hair completely.
I’ve tried Googling various forms of “big head women’s hats” with no luck.
The stats: my head measures 23 1/2, so I’m at least a 7 1/2 hat size, not including hair with any sort of body. I’m looking for something cloche-ish, but without too much brim, since, on me, brim, scarf, and coat collar tend to mush together so that I can’t turn my head. I live in Michigan, so I need warmth, but I’m also frugal, so under $100 would be wonderful.
Can anyone help me? Thanks,
Hat Head
Tags: Ask The Readers popcult retail
My family has a similar fun story about my big giant melon – as it was accidentally called by the guy selling me a bike helmet. I would recommend finding an actual hat shop – they will probably carry more sizes than your local department store or even online, and they (usually) enjoy the challenge/reward of finding the perfect hat for a difficult-to-fit woman. If you can’t find a local shop, search on etsy for hats you like and ask the maker if they can make a custom-sized hat in your price range.
Hat Head: Learn to knit! But failing that, have you checked Etsy? Many sellers will be happy to work with you on custom sizes if their normal stuff won’t fit you; I just snagged this shop off the first page of search results, and not only does she have cute girly hats she seems very open to custom orders:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MaisondeTerre?ref=seller_info
I have no help for either of these, but I also have a big head (and super thick hair, which makes me head even bigger) so I will be awaiting the nifty answers for thisone.
@Hat Head – seconding the recommendation for etsy. Many crafters, especially the ones doing knitting/crochet/textile work will gladly make custom sizes. Good luck!
Hat — I also have a really big head for a women (although sadly I don’t have a tape measure here to get an actual measurement for comparison), and have noticed through the years that most women’s hats that are “one size fits all” do NOT fit me. I also have this issue where… you know how some people can wear hats and look cute? Not me. Some combo of the shape of my head and the shape of my face and I don’t even know what. So I can just put a knit hat on, but I look like a dork, and I am vain enough to care.
A few years ago I found THE WINTER HAT for me. I don’t know if it will be for you, but: it is the Watership Trading Co. Winter Garden Hat. I’m linking you to a place that sells them, but also giving you the full name in case you want to Google around. They aren’t that expensive, comparatively. They’re made of fleece, basically, with a stuffed-satin headband that help give them shape (completely washable), and as you can see on that page, you can wear the brim curled up a bit, which is the default, or turned down. (I realize, though, that you’d prefer no brim; me, I really appreciate it for keeping snow and rain out of my eyes.)
The problem is that a few years ago, they used to be more available. The company’s own website does not even show them any more, which is why I say, Google around to find other places maybe still selling them. When I bought mine, they were available in black, charcoal, dark brown, and olive green. (I got one each of the latter two, and a black for a friend.) I really need to write to them and tell them that they had better not have discontinued this hat.
Here’s my point: they offer a L/XL and it actually fits me. It’s just loose enough that it’s not so hair-mashy and never gives me a headache. (Though to be honest, there’s no way to completely avoid hat-head.) My very informal measurement here suggests that the circumference is 24″. It’s flexible enough that I have mashed it on over a scarf wrapped around my head on REALLY cold days. (I’m in Boston.)
(As for the other question: I grew up in Philly and so did my parents, in the 40s and 50s, but I fear I don’t recognize that song. Maybe it really was a more localized commercial? Unlike, say, the Ideal Clothing commercial song, which everyone who was in Philly in the 70s can sing. “If you’ve got a passion for fashion…”)
“I can tell from the screen name it’s my dad asking the question.” Thank goodness this is only about tree song lyrics. Otherwise: awkward.
To continue on with the etsy theme, there’s this listing or this one, where you can design your own cloche hat, and have it custom made for your size.
Good luck!
Hat — have you tried Lands End? I feel your pain — when in a head measuring contest in college (don’t ask), I beat out the girl who had the largest head in her high school class — “My head is bigger than the kid they called Fat Head”
I have thick, curly, long-ish hair as well, so … yeah. But long story short, I bought a L/XL hat last year from Lands End (the fleece roll-brim hat), and had to return it — it was too big!!! The S/M slides down on my forehead a little bit some days.
With 3 pieces of paper and some tape, my head comes out to 23″, for what it’s worth.
I know that song! I can’t remember where I know it from but here are the lyrics I recall:
A Tree, A Tree! A shiny (?) Christmas Tree!
And trim it up with shining lights for everyone to see.
And then we’ll hang a wreath upon the door
And wish a Merry Christmas like we’ve never wished before
(something something something)… with cheer
And make a wish to last throughout the year.
A Tree, A Tree…. etc.
I searched and I can’t find anything online with that lyrics combo. I thought at first it was from a Christmas special but now I’m thinking it may have been from one of our old Christmas albums my mom had when we were growing up. I recall a children’s choir singing with maybe one adult voice. We mainly listened to Peggy Lee and I think Bing Crosby at Christmastime so I’m going to do some research or this’ll drive me nuts!
Ha! Found it!
“The Tree” By Peggy Lee
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000SZH3AC/ref=dm_mu_dp_trk15
Lyrics…sorry, never been near Philadelphia to help. I have a friend who was in Pennsylvania, so I’ll ask her and be back if I get an answer.
Hat: I crochet, and have a fairly large head (evidence, my kids say I make ’em huge to fit me)and its a pretty easy thing to customize a hat. Etsy, or a friend who is crafty if you want one of fleece are both ideas. If neither works, drop me a note. I grew up in MI, Bay City, so I know from cold! I live in central Massachusetts and could crochet one or more for you. nilliem@yahoo.com
@Singing: I’m a life-long resident of the northern Philly ‘burbs, and I’m drawing a total blank on your song. Is it possible that it’s just one of those dittys that someone in your extended family (maybe your dad’s parents?) made up and then “passed down through the ages”? (Or is my mom the only one who made up her own cheesy “classics” to help occupy/distract me since I hated driving in the car for any length of time?)
@Holly: “… And you’ve got a craving for saving. Take the wheel of your automobile, and swing on down to – Ideal!” Oy – I think I have an earworm now …
Nice work, @jennie! I was actually going to suggest “Christmas in Killarney” (or whatever it is) by Der Bingle, based on your first comment, but I wasn’t 100% that that was it.
@50: It’s nothing but a Quonset hut, BUT!…
It really is the ear-wormiest of commercials. Sorry.
(I’m making note of the Lands End size recommendation on hats; I like them for other things, but hadn’t checked those out.)
Hat (and others): I have a larger than average head, and very thick hair which I often wear pinned up in a big clip for work, so I needed a very large winter hat. I would second the knitting recommendation if you are so inclined — my favorite hat I actually made myself — hats are really easy to knit, even for beginning knitters, and very customizable. (As an alternative, you could learn to knit a basic flower and attach it to a man’s hat to dress it up a bit.)
However, I’ve had luck with store bought “slouch” knit hats — the kind that are designed to fit over your head and then have a little extra material draping down at the back, especially if it has a really stretchy elastic at the opening (I find that thinner elastics tend to have more give than really wide ones). I just bought one at H&M last week in basic black that I really like — the brim is stretchy enough that it fits comfortably around my head and doesn’t smash my hair down too much if I’m wearing it down, and there’s enough extra material in the back that if I have my hair up in a big clip, the hat still covers my ears and forehead comfortably. I’ve been wearing mine while walking around NYC during this crazy cold snap we’ve had going on this week, and it’s kept me pretty warm.
Hat & company: Total plug for my mom, who crochets AWESOME hats in just about any style/color you want. She has one style that can be a cloche, a slouchy hat, rolled-brim, no brim, whatever you want to do. She doesn’t have a web site (don’t get me started), but drop me an email at brbrauchamp@gmail.com & I’ll forward it on. Being of the big-headed, thick-haired tribe, I sympathize!
Head, I would try two things: Goorin Brothers, which is a fab little hat shop that makes sized hats. Not all of the women’s hats come in XL (which corresponds to a 7 1/2), but just put in “XL women” in the search function at http://www.goorin.com, and you should be able to find a good selection of cute hats. Bonus–almost all of them are in the $25-$50 range.
Also, I would try your local ski/snowboard shop, since you can often find a selection of stretchy, super-cute beanies and cloche-ish hats like this one.
seconding the recommendation for Etsy seller bonniesknitting for woven-fabric cloches. I bought one of her custom hats last year and she was delightful to work with. I was wearing it today, actually.
I also vote yes for Bonniesknitting.etsy.com
She will make a gorgeous wool cloche in whatever size and color you want. I serious can’t recommend her enough. I have one that I never want to take off my head. And my mom is getting one for Christmas. Go there now. For serious.
I am so glad to know I am not the only member of the Freakish Gargautu-Noggin Club. Mine measures a scorching 24 1/2 inches and was the second biggest in my graduating class in high school. I know this because the counselor’s office called me down to remeasure because they thought there was no way that my head was bigger than a guy who was going to a Division I school on a football scholarship (as a defensive lineman, no less). They were wrong. My head is TOTALLY bigger than his. It was just smaller than the guy who turned out to be a pro linebacker.
I think part of it has to do with WHERE your head is big. My head is relatively normal on the front and it’s the back that’s enormous. I have several very cute cloche-type hats that I’ve gotten at Anthropologie. Their hats always say one size fits all, but usually there are one or two in a given style that are larger. I just try on every one in the style I like and find the one that feels the biggest.
Many commenters with large heads = many commenters with large brains = many commenters who are really smart and really helpful = tomatonation is AWESOME
I adore that Lands End hat! I lost my beloved winter hat last year (left in in a restaurant and when I went back it was gone–not my gloves, just my lovely hat–eat a bee, hat thief!) But I want to make sure I order the right size. Any recommendations on determining the size of one’s noggin, than how it translates into S, M, L, XL?
Yeah, I’m part-Irish, too. My head measures about the same as Hat’s. And I’m short. And back in the day, my head wasn’t much smaller in circumference than my waist. I’m amazed teenaged-me could walk uphill at all.
Totally agree on etsy, or on taking up knitting, or on commissioning a familiar knitter to whip something up for you. (You are guaranteed to know at least two knitters.) If you can wear wool (unlike me), ask if someone can make a felted cloche for you.
@jennie, you rock so much because that is it! Thank you!
I’d like to apologize for doubting the Nation.
And now I know what I’m getting my Dad for Christmas!
I have nothing useful to add, but I just think it’s awesome that there’s other big-headed gals in the world. I have the biggest head in the family, bigger even than my dad’s. I come from big-headed Irish folk on both sides so I was doomed.
I have nothing useful to add either, except that Jackie Kennedy, when she was first lady, used to have to get her hats specially made as her head was so big, she complained about it in her correspondence! So you’re in good company.
I am another member of the enormous noggin club. Combined with my very thick, curly hair, I’ve resigned myself to the fact that 99% of cute hats are out of the question. (I hate to admit it, but the Pitch In for Baseball cap I got a few months back is too tight on me, even with the strap at the widest setting.)
I would strongly recommend the Lands’ End recommendation for finding hats. I have the same fleece hat that’s been mentioned above, and it’s AWESOME for winter days. It keeps my head warm, but doesn’t squash my hair down to a train wreck, and looks relatively cute. The other advantage of Lands’ End is you can return any items to them, no questions asked, either by mail or at a Sears store. They’ve been running frequent free shipping deals during the holidays, so try ordering some hats, and if they don’t work out, just send ’em back.
I’m starting to wonder if anyone has a “normal” size head. Have heads grown since Victoria’s time, or something?
@ Jen S. I don’t know about others, but I know in my family, my mom and both of my sisters have no problems finding hats that fit. They don’t have the big head that I have.
I don’t think that size of heads have really changed that much in the past 50 years. My guess is that when ladies always wore hats, they came in sizes, or you would have a hat made that fit your head. As we’ve shifted to hats being much more of an optional fashion accessory, I think that manufacturers have moved to a practice of trying to make hats that fit “most” people. A hat that is large enough to fit those of us who have big heads would be unwearable by 80% or more (just a guess) of the target market. Just a guess, I have no data to support my theory.
@Hathead- I wear a size 7 1/2 hat, too, and also have thick, short punkish hair, so I get major hat head that is if I don’t find one big enough. But I also live in Alaska so a good hat is utterly necessary. Last year after trying on about 50, I finally found the perfect one and then lost it at the end of the winter. I got lucky and found it again this year for $44 at REI and ordered it post-haste. It’s not super feminine, but I think it’s more gender neutral toward girly if anything. Etsy could work out as well, but this one is good if you need it quick or need a back-up. As I have learned, when you finally find one hat that you love, get at least two.
http://www.rei.com/product/755190
Big giant heads FTW! I wear 7 5/8 (maybe 7 1/2 now that I’m wearing my hair reeeeally short?). My motorcycle helmet makes me look like a lollipop. That Lands End roll-brim is a winner for the giant-headed, but I do wish it were easier to get dressy, wedding/Easter-type hats for my enormous melon.
Hat head here. You guys! You guys are awesome. Thanks for all the great suggestions for my giant dome. I really, really appreciate it!
@Jen S 1.0: just so you don’t feel all left out, I have a pin-head. My problem is the opposite of everyone else’s, though probably solvable through the same means. My wee tiny head means all those adorable little hats end up somewhere around my eyes. So I don’t think we can chalk up the Big Heads in the comments to growth hormone or the Industrial Revolution or the brainiacs of the Nation or anything.
And THANKS Jennie for getting that Peggy Lee song totally stuck in my head. La la la..TREE!
I also suffer from the giant head syndrome and have been admiring the hats from this seller for a while: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lizarietz?ref=top_trail She custom makes them base don your measurements!
Who knew there were so many large-headed women? I was all set to give you my advice (which is, get a knitter to make you hats — I no longer need to buy hats or scarves or mittens thanks to a knit-crazy mom and aunt) but it has been given.
So, let me just join in the solidarity of women who reject the “one size fits all” approach to hats.
Oh, this is too funny! My daughters both have heads large enough to have caused the pediatrician alarm; they were able to skip the ultrasounds for hydrocephalus when the doc measured their dad’s head and saw that he was off the chart of head size for adult men. I always got a big kick out of that, and I make my own hats, so I hadn’t considered that I might have been part of the problem … reading this comment thread, I grabbed a tape measure: 24″. Guess I’m on the top of the curve, too!
I’m also glad to read this because I’m making a hat for a gift exchange, and this has clued me in that I may not want to use my own head or any hats I own as a pattern!
I had my best large, non-hair crushing hat for at least 10 years. Got it at a local craft fair (I’m in Alaska, also). It was basically a felt version of an Amish hat – flat crown, straight sides, wide brim. Black with red trim (to go with my red jacket and coat – hee). Last winter, however, my family made it known that it was getting old and less becoming, and I think they have hidden it because now I can’t find it anywhere. Am making do with a wool scarf wrapped around my head, but might have to eventually try to make one for myself.
Another large-noggined long-time hatwearer here. http://www.villagehatshop.com/ is a good starting point for investigating hat possibilities; don’t be afraid to try on numerous hats that are theoretically the same size, and now is the time of year to find warm sheepskin (or ersatzskin) hats that will be warm and attractive and not squash your hair. Too much. http://www.kiwi-sheepskins.com/shearling-hats-fashion-accessories.asp http://www.sundanceleather.com/html/sheepskin_hats.html also offer some winter possibilities. Happy hunting!