Bill, great piece and always enjoy reading your musings:
What is your go-to Christmas tree?
Faux or real? Real (My family was faux and my wife was real - not the hill I chose to die on.
Blue spruce or Fraser fir? Douglas Fir
White lights or multicolor? Multi-color
Garland or tinsel (remember those shiny silver strands from way back in the day that made a mess)? Neither Hallmark ornaments or family keepsakes? Combination - we have so many that only half fit on the two trees - Once again, not the hill I chose to die on.
It’s all part of the holiday mosaic that plays out as soon as the last piece of pie is consumed at the Thanksgiving celebration. For many, the annual trek to the Christmas tree farm is near on the horizon.
For our family, it's a long-standing tradition that the kids and now grandchild are ingrained. For the past 20+ years we have trekked to the same farm (Cherryville Farms) to cut down a tree, the Saturday after Thanksgiving It started with one tree, then two (second being an angel tree); now we are back to one by my daughter and her husband cut theirs down on the same trip. Same routine...get there 5 minutes before they open so when the open the gate we are one of the first five cars and have the place to ourselves.
When the kids were young, every year one of them would leave the farm in tears as their pick was not chosen. Laying on muddy, icy, hard, uncomfortable earth and struggling to cut a tree which became bigger and bigger each year as having a cathedral family room ceiling gave us the ability to cut the tallest tree in the orchard. Thankfully, we have downsized and there is a ceiling limit now
!
We joke that the only day of the year my wife and I have words is the day we have to drag the tree in the house and get it perfectly straight in the tree stand. That never goes well...
I long for an artificial tree...but will trade the unlimited number of guilt free rounds of golf that have been bartered.