Bethany: Is your house on fire, Clark?
Clark: No, Aunt Bethany. Those are the Christmas lights.
I can't tell you how excited I am that the holiday season is here - I love the lights, the decorations and especially putting up the tree (taking it down is another matter). And so begins the annual Fox family debate - what kind of tree to get.
My husband grew up in an "artificial tree" family. He believes in economy - grab that puppy from the basement, have it up in under a half hour, maybe spray some pine-scent and start decorating.
If only it could be so simple.
For, you see, I tend to channel the spirit of Clark Griswold during the holiday season. And worse, I come from a real tree family. And not just a "tree lot" tree family - my dad had us out early the weekend after Thanksgiving, hoofing it across massive Christmas tree forests, looking for the perfect one. We'd spent all morning walking - and goofing around - but all in search of the not-too-tall, not-too-short, no-bald-spots, does-it-have-the-right-kind-of-needles, long-enough-trunk, my-brother-did-NOT-see-it-first masterpiece of a tree. We'd take turns chopping it down and then my dad would haul it back out of the woods.
The first year we were married, I tried to re-create this tradition with my husband, the spray-on pine scent guy. He was cautiously optimistic. I picked the wrong tree farm. It was literally a long field flanked by other people's backyards. He laughed. And finally, I did too. It was fun. The tree was pretty. And we vowed ... next year would be spectacular.
Then we had one kiddo, and two. My husband began to point out ads for artificial trees - on sale! (Yeah, I'm a sucker for a sale.) But, no. While I'm not going to channel Clark Griswold to the point of dashing out to the woods with two small children and a hack saw, I still need a real tree.
So we head to the lot up at church. My husband talks with the guys, we all pick out a tree and it's just as pretty as the ones we dragged home years ago. But someday...one day...I'm going to get these people back out into the woods.
Now what about you? Are you an "artificial tree" person or a "real tree" person? And do you know any good tree farms?
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7 comments:
My husband and I were channeling Clark Griswold this weekend, but not in a good way. I was thinking about NL's Christmas as my DH was up on a ladder trying to hook the twinkling lights to the eaves in the dark as it was sleeting. It all turned out okay and the outside looks great, but I think we need to plan a little bit better next year to avoid those nasty trips to the ER.
Yow - you married an ambitious type. That reminds me of a friend of mine whose husband said he would build their kids a tree house one Saturday. Darned if Mark wasn't going to get it done on Saturday if it killed him. My friend was posting Facebook pictures at midnight of him out in the backyard, lights blazing, finishing it up. And yes, I think she captioned it something like, "my crazy husband."
We've gone back and forth between real and artificial trees over the years but currently have a twelve foot artifical one. I like that i can bend up the ends of the branches that I've hung breakable ornaments on to keep the cats from knocking them off. But i do love the smell of the LL Bean wreath my inlaws send us each yeat.
I think this is the only argument I have ever won lol. Has to be a real tree. We had a real tree until my later teens and then my dad got a fake tree and I loathed it!!! It has to be a real tree and I've been doing this for 42 years. Only twice did I get my husband to actually go out and chop one down and that was when we had young children. Now my daughter's boyfriend of many years has taken over the job and my husband is off the hook. But I now get even bigger trees since he's not around to complain lol.
For all of my life until this year I've been a live tree person. However, I developed an allergy to grass this year (fun, right?) and noticed for the past couple of years that we end up with colds and bad allergies around the time we get our tree. Add in the fact that pine tree needles can perforate my kitties insides (just found that out this year) and we're trying a fake tree. It's going to be a weird feeling this year. A very weird feeling. I'm hoping it works out well, but already miss the idea of a real tree.
I love Clark! No real tree for us even though my husband wants one. I'm allergic to pine.
I was totally a real tree type person, until my allergy to pine got worse. Yeah, that really sucks. It was one thing to not be able to touch the tree, it was a whole other not being able to breathe when said tree was in the house. So we have a gorgeous fake tree--with no pine scent.
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