It was a rough year for a rough neck's children
Hard times and harder living
We moved when the rent come due and it come due once a week
That year in late December found us in an old house trailer
West of Odessa in a town they call Notrees

To poor to pay attention daddy lived on good intentions
He intended Christmas to be just what we believed
He drove to town in the company pickup and when he didn't have sawbuck
For the price of a Christmas tree he brought back a tumbleweed

Christmas Eve in Notrees, Texas wind blowing through the cactus
Santa Clause was a rich kids saint and a poor kid's dream
But I'd trade every fancy present I ever had or ever will get
For the night of the tumbleweed Christmas tree

Daddy sat it on the dinette table momma made a newsprint angel
Ornaments of tinfoil buttons on a string
It took all night to decorate it when we got done I have to say that
It was the prettiest tumbleweed I'd ever seen

Christmas Eve in Notrees, Texas wind blowing through the cactus
Santa Clause was a rich kids saint and a poor kid's dream
But I'd trade every fancy present I ever had or ever will get
For the night of the tumbleweed Christmas tree

Wind rocked the trailer like a cradle while we sang our Christmas carols
Setting on the sofa on the duck tape Naugahyde
Daddy looked proud as city banker momma trying hard to be thankful
But looking at the tumbleweed she laughed until she cried

Christmas Eve in Notrees, Texas wind blowing through the cactus
Santa Clause was a rich kids saint and a poor kid's dream
But I'd trade every fancy present I ever had or ever will get
For the night of the tumbleweed Christmas tree

I was just six going on seven but being poor was an education
And that night I learned a lot about just what Christmas means
It means love and it means loving it means money don't mean nothing
It means a tumbleweed can make a Christmas tree

Christmas Eve in Notrees, Texas wind blowing through the cactus
Santa Clause was a rich kids saint and a poor kid's dream
But I'd trade every fancy present I ever had or ever will get
For the night of the tumbleweed Christmas tree

I'd trade every fancy present I ever had or ever will get
For the night of the tumbleweed Christmas tree