Real Christmas Trees

Real Christmas trees have been a part of my whole life.  I have never had and artificial tree.  Maybe things would have been different if it wasn't for the man in the green coat, my Uncle Bob.  


Uncle Bob bought a farm after WWII and some time on the road before settling down.  He kept cows for awhile, but soon started planting evergreens for the Christmas tree market.  As long as I can remember, our tree came from a short drive to his farm to cut our own tree and tie it to the car.


Every Thanksgiving I made the trip up north to see my mom and have dinner with the family.  Our hunters stayed in this area, so we were able to have everyone together.  Thanksgiving was my daughter, Elizabeth's, favorite holiday for a long time.  We had a big noisy dinner with people eating in all corners of my sister's house.  The kids would be able to see their cousins and have a good time running around together.  If the weather cooperated, they would be out playing in the snow.


The day after Thanksgiving meant leftovers and a trip to Uncle Bob's farm.  The kids would bundle up and pile in the car.  We would set off through the fields with a hand saw and the dogs would run along with us.  The area was hunted around the farm, so the sounds of rifles would occasionally interrupt the shouts of the kids through the trees.  The tree farm was such an established landmark that we never worried about stray bullets accidentally being fired in our direction.  Many of the hunters would go home with a tree each year even if the deer was not on the car next to it.  


After the trees had been brought up to the barn on the wagon or by manpower, we all would head up to the house where Aunt Marvel would bring out her chocolate chip cookies for all and coffee for the adults.  The visit was a part of Thanksgiving that was irreplaceable as the turkey the day before.

This year was different.  Uncle Bob gave up his license to sell Christmas trees so the tradition has ended.  The trees will grow where they stand and fill in the fields that they occupy.  I could not bear Thanksgiving without the visit, so my sister and I made the trip down the night before Thanksgiving.  We sat with our uncle and aunt and had the same enjoyable conversation and the same coffee and cookies.  My mom was not there with us as we lost her this spring.  My dog was not there as we lost him this fall.  I was not about to lose one more thing this year.

The tree was still coming home with us from up north, regardless.  The day after Thanksgiving my brother-in-law, Howie, and I made a trip to the National Forest office he worked at before becoming a Lutheran pastor.  I purchased two permits to cut a tree off of National Forest lands for $5 each.  We drove around the area he knew very well and ended up finding a little balsam fir for my daughter along the way.

I settled for the top of a 30 foot tree that we thinned out of the stand by their lake cottage.  My husband set up the tree the next week while I was out.  I got a picture text of our skinny tree with the message "Are you kidding?".   I wasn't.  It fit our little living room quite well and I liked the open branch habit for the collection of ornaments we have.  I put on the lights and ornaments the next week while he lay recuperating from surgery in the hospital next week (this was not a side affect from the tree).  By the time I was done I was more attached to this tree than any other I had decorated before.  It may have been all the nostalgia I was feeling about all this year's changes, but this tree made things right for me in the midst of all the chaos.

I grow things for a living and for my life but I have never felt guilty about cutting down a tree for Christmas.  Trees are a renewable resource.  When we would cut down a tree at Uncle Bob's, he taught us to leave the lowest whorl of branches.  As the branches would grow up to reach the light, he could come along and select the best of the bunch to grow into the next tree.  He didn't have to replant where these partial stumps were left.


I had already decided to write this tribute to Uncle Bob and his Christmas tree farm before I got my latest issue of Organic Gardening.  They featured the first article I had ever seen in their magazine on the benefits of the Christmas tree industry.  I highly recommend searching this one out for yourself.  Artificial trees are not as "eco-friendly" as one might think when you take into consideration the petroleum products used to make them as well as the off-gassing they do over time in your home.


When the tree comes down the branches will come off and mulch over the evergreen ground covers in my yard.  The trunk will be cut into lengths to be burned in the outdoor fire pit.  The needles will fall off in spring and add acid to the plants that crave the lower pH in our alkaline soils.  The tree will continue to live in the plants that it nourishes.  Don't just set your whole tree at the curb and let all this good mulch go to waste.  


This is for you, Uncle Bob, and all the other tree farmers out there who make this time of year special for the rest of us.  It is your trees that will be the back-drop for all our Christmas memories.