This Christmas, a Wisconsin man celebrated 40 years since he put up the Christmas tree that still sits adorned with tinsel in his home.

Neil Olson, 89, has lived with the same Christmas tree in the living room of his Wausau, Wisconsin, home since 1974, The Wausau Daily Herald reported. The tree has withered and browned over the decades, but for the most part its needles remain intact, holding up the same bells and festive bulbs Olson originally put up.

"Most of 'em don't last," Olson told the newspaper. "The needles are kept on for a reason. It's supernatural, I say."

The reason the needles have stayed, Olson believes, is because he vowed not to take the tree down until all six of his sons were home for Christmas. The year the tree went up was the same year two of his sons went to fight in the Vietnam War.

His sons survived the war, but Olson has not been able to spend Christmas with all six of them since 1974, and so the tree has stayed up. Olson's eldest son, Barry, is disabled due to an injury sustained during the Vietnam war. He lives in Washington state and has not been able to make the trip home for the holidays.

"I bet you if my sixth boy comes home, the needles will drop right off," Olson, a World War II and Korean War vet, told the newspaper.

Olson said he still hopes Barry will make it to Wisconsin one day. As for this Christmas, the father said he would spend it with his five sons who are in Wausau and now have their own families.

However, he won't light up the tree.  

The light bulbs, which are German and nearly 100 years old, have not been lit since '74.

"It'd just blow up on me. All that dust on there," Olson said. "It'd be like an atomic bomb."