Christmas Tree Traditions

Growing up we always had a real Fir tree for our Christmas trees. Our dairy farm was just down the road from a tree farm and the trucks hauling trees would always get stuck and my dad would pull them out. So as a thanks, the owners of the tree farm said that we could pick and cut our own trees for free. It was way cool and I remember running around the massive tree farm with my family trying to find just the right tree. My sister and I would bring extra hats, mittens and scarves to mark trees that we thought were good. I even think that we lost a mitten or two over the years. When the tree farm was sold we weren't able to do that anymore, but we still had great real trees. There is something about that smell that is so special to me.

Over the years I will admit that I have become a Christmas tree snob. I am very picky about what my tree looks like and it has to be pretty much perfect. Once I was out on my own, my decorations became very "natural". No tinsel or colored lights for me. Just white lights, strung popcorn and cranberries. The ornaments were made out of pine cones, sea shells and fabric things. My star is also a really large starfish. Very cool. Once Scott and I got married I got all of my old ornaments from my Mom so things started to morph a bit, but that was fine as it brought back memories of days of old. Now that we have kids they have their special ornaments also and our tree is looking very different, but wonderful.

This year the checkbook is a bit empty so we knew we would not be able to buy a tree like we normally do, so we thought of getting a permit to cut one on county land, but the permit costs money also, so... I decided that this year we will have a "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree and just cut it on our own 20 acres. We have a lot of nice little white pines growing all over, so yesterday Adin and I went in search for our tree. We looked at a few, but it didn't take Adin long to find the one we wanted. It is a beautiful Charlie Brown tree (a bit bigger than Charlie's tree). It was a trick to get the lights on, but the rest looks great. We were selective of the ornaments we put up as there are a lot less branches than a nice fir tree, but as Adin said last night, "It is beautiful Mommy!" and he is right.

If anyone has Christmas tree traditions, please share.