My most treasured Christmas tradition began almost 56 years ago when I was a child growing up in Berlin, New Hampshire.

For my sister, Laureen Marois Poulin, who still lives in Berlin today, this tradition began almost 63 years ago.

And for my eldest sister, Gloria Marois Ward, of Salem, Massachusetts, this tradition began a full seven decades ago in December 1940.

The tradition centers on a Christmas bulb that was always the first ornament to be placed on the family Christmas tree. After my father secured the tree in the base and after all the lights were strewn on the tree and well-tested to see if all of them were aglow, it was time to place the first ornament on the tree.

Was the ornament a special silver or gold bulb? Hardly. Was it a hand-blown glass figure of Santa Claus or one of his reindeer? Not a chance. Was it, perhaps, a special handmade ornament that had been handed down for generations in the family? Not quite.

The ornament was a shiny, blue bulb with a cartoon character painted on the front of it. The character was none other than Mickey Mouse who remains one of the most identifiable cartoon icons of all time. As if performing a sacred ritual, the Mickey Mouse ornament had to be the first on every single Christmas tree each year.

“When your father and I were first married, we bought the bulb so we would have it on Gloria’s first Christmas tree,” explained my mother, Verna Clinch Marois, who passed away in July at 89 years of age. “When we put up the tree, we decided then that it would be the first ornament on the tree every year.”

“I can remember the ornament because it was so special that it was the first one on the tree,” said my sister, Gloria. “It was something I looked forward to each year.”

While the oldest child in the family was given the task of placing the ornament on the tree, it wasn’t long before Gloria’s younger siblings took on the task. My sister, Laureen, was born in 1947 and I followed in 1954. I can clearly remember placing the ornament front and center in the tree when I was five years old. For me, December 2009 marked the 50th year that Mickey Mouse has adorned my Christmas tree.

Along the way, the ornament was passed from the Marois family Christmas tree in New Hampshire to the Marois family Christmas tree in Poland Spring, Maine where my wife, Denise Boucher Marois, and I have lived for 25 years.

On December 3, 1983, we were blessed with a daughter, Katherine Noelle Marois. Even at a very young age, Katie learned that the Mickey ornament had special meaning to our family and that she would carry on a very special tradition.

“Mickey Mouse is part of every Christmas,” said Katie, as she recently looked through photographs of Christmases gone by. “It is simply one of those traditions that will keep on forever.”

In recent years, the tradition has changed slightly since the Mickey Mouse ornament is showing signs of aging. The one-time vibrant blue has faded to a dull finish.

The white background behind Mickey is more gray than white. The tiny cartoon figure on the bulb has a scratch or two on it and the metal plug on the top of the ornament has rusted completely.

Mickey Mouse now rests in a glass ice cream dish placed in a kitchen cabinet throughout the year so as not to be tossed and turned among the other packed away Christmas decorations.

Rest assured that when the Christmas tree stands tall once again during the Christmas season, the Mickey Mouse ornament is perched on a table – front and center – as a special part of the Marois family holiday.