Christmas Trees

On Tuesday night Amber and I went and bought our Christmas tree from a lot a few blocks over.  As we brought it in the house and needle fell all over the floor she commented that for someone that wanted a real Christmas tree I was doing a lot of complaining.  It was at this point that I told her that I was complaining because we in fact did not have a real Christmas tree, we had areal, fake tree.

The tree we brought home has been cut for at least a few days already if not a week or so, it was farmed as well in some field perfectly spaced from other trees to allow sun from all sides and so on.  Yes it is a real tree in the sense that it is not a plastic or metal tree, but it is like some tree from the matrix or something.

In my childhood we went and got real trees, usually on Christmas eve.  My dad and I would go out into the woods (we lived in the woods) in search of a great tree.  Within fifteen minutes we would see a tree or two that looked ok, but there must be something better so we would keep walking.  Eventually we would be cold and snow would be in our boots and anything resembling a tall green thing would be up for consideration. 

A tree would of course be found and we would drag it back home.  It would be put up in the stand and then have to be turned to show the best side of it away from the wall.  This was key, because since it was a real tree there was a ‘best side’ because usually the side deemed ‘not best’ would have a huge gap in branches and such.  Typically then we would have to use some twine to tie the tree up to the ceiling.  If we did not do this step it was usually the case where the tree we had selected could not bear it’s own weight, I think this was partly due to the fact that until dad made his own we must have had the worst tree stand in history.

I have been known to go out into the woods and get my own tree in my adulthood as well, following almost the exact same plan as my dad, but this year we were a bit rushed since Amber’s mom is coming tonight to do the whole Christmas thing and going out in the dark to find a tree would be pointless.

Next year we are getting a real, real tree. For now, this will have to do.