November 25, 2006 6:12 PM
Cutting down our Christmas tree
From the archives:
I remember one Christmas as a single mother when the tree I’d bought from a lot just up and died, shedding all its needles five days before Christmas. After indulging in just a little Woe Is Me, I took off all the decorations, tied the dead tree to the top of my red Kharmann Ghia (at the time my focus was on flash and not on the comfort of my two little girls crammed in what was affectionately called a back seat) and hauled it back to the tree lot to demand a new tree. I was a single mother after all, making barely enough to make ends meet.
By the next Christmas I’d met the man of my dreams. Instead of loading the girls into my teensy Ghia, he loaded the three of us into his pickup and drove us out to the country to cut down a tree.
As I recall, it was not a happy trip. My oldest daughter Samantha, quite upset at the change in our routine, made no effort to hide her displeasure. Now in addition to a crazy mother, she had to deal with a serious suitor – and someone with ideas of his own. We ended up driving back to San Rafael and buying a tree from the same lot we’d bought from before.
The next Christmas found Tripp and I married – with baby Joshua in a backpack and the two girls in tow – tromping through the tree farms to try again to find the perfect tree. Samantha and Jasmine had learned to trust Tripp and Tripp and I were learning to build a family.
Building a family brought with it the opportunity to begin traditions which would be part of our family identity for many years to come. Cutting down a Christmas tree became one of those traditions.
Cutting down a Christmas tree meant getting up early for a drive to the country, scouting together – every other year with yet another child – for the perfect tree, cheering as Daddy cut it down, the kids riding back with the tree on the farm’s tractor, a stop for hot cider – and lots of photo ops along the way (these are from 2003):
Cutting down our own tree meant the tree would not be perfect - at least in the way the precut trees are perfect. But it meant we’d never have to take back a dead tree before Christmas! It meant we could cut down a tree way in advance - even the day after Thanksgiving - and still have it very much alive into the new year. And we didn’t have to put up the tree right away – it could sit in a bucket of water in the back yard until we had a day free to decorate it, too.
I’m sharing this Curtis tradition – as I’ll be sharing others over the next few weeks – because I know there are parents out there as Tripp and I were at first, looking for ways to add meaning and memories to their family’s Christmas. This is just one opportunity you might not have thought of. But if you do try it, let me know how you like it – and send me a picture!
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Comments
"Tree Day" is such a big deal in our family that our 18-year-old son, who is just finishing Coast Guard boot camp, was glad to trade missing Thanksgiving for being there when we get the tree. (They gave him turkey at the base anyway :-)
Posted by: Salome Ellen | November 25, 2006 8:23 PM
I really enjoyed reading this post. Looking forward to learning about more of your family's Christmas traditions!
Posted by: Sheena | November 26, 2006 3:43 AM
Ourselves, we've been developing a family tradition of finding the fake tree in its dilapidated cardboard box out in the garage every year!
Good times. . .:)
Posted by: Marie | November 26, 2006 1:59 PM
i miss the tradition of cutting down our own tree for our circus. one of my girls is severely allergic we discovered one Christmas season right after we got our gorgeous tree put up and decorated...down it came immediately that year as rushing to the er with a blue kid was not our idea of fun.
but 12 years later, we have learned to love the tradiion of our two, gorgeous artificial trees. one is for the kids to decorate as they see fit with their annual ornaments and the other is mom and dad's. this season is so wonderful with so many blessings and moments to make memories.
thanks for sharing yours.
Posted by: laura | November 27, 2006 12:00 PM
