Rusty Griswold: Dad, this tree won’t fit in our back yard.
Clark: It’s not going in the yard, Russ. It’s going in the living room.
(courtesy of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation)
…
And so begins the chopping down of our Christmas tree.
First, a little background. We started going to Santa Land Christmas Tree Farm in 2005, when Jeremy was a toddler.
With a new addition to the family, we went back to Santa Land in 2006…
…and again in 2007.
Right before we moved to Texas in December 2008, we went to Santa Land and chopped down a tree to take with us.
We strapped it to the hood of the car being pulled by the moving truck. It lasted through an ice storm. Yes, it looked like a dead body.
In 2009 we purchased a tree from a grocery store parking lot because there aren’t any Christmas tree farms in West Texas that we knew of. By 2010, we knew we were moving back to Tennessee, so all of our Christmas decorations were put in storage. When our house had not sold by December, I spent several weeks on do-it-yourself decorations in lieu of a Christmas tree. (Examples here, here, and here. Also here, here, and here.)
Last year, for our first Christmas back in Tennessee, we visited a local farm and went back to cutting down our own tree. It was a lovely tree, but we ended up wishing we’d just driven down to Santa Land.
So that’s what we did on our way back from Atlanta on Sunday.
This photo was not cropped at the top. The tree really is taller than the camera’s field of vision.
It hung a good three feet off the back of our car.
I cannot blame my husband entirely. That would be misleading. However, I will say that Clark, I mean, Chuck was very keen on getting a tall tree to suit his very tall den. The only problem is that even with a six-foot ladder I cannot reach the top. (Never mind the fact that I ran out of lights!) And my Christmas tree topper, that tiny Old St. Nicholas directly behind Jeremy’s head, is too small to fit the top branch.
The good news is that I trust Salem will continue to steadily watch the tree on the off chance we’ve brought home a squirrel.
What a lovely tradition! Unfortunately we have gone practical and economical and gotten a fake one. There are many days I wish we did real. Oh, well; maybe next year?
I am sure you are enjoying the lovely smell and the tradition of cutting your own tree is incredible. Your children will remember this for years to come, I am sure.
The decision to cut down our own tree in 2005 was done on a whim. We didn’t realize how fun it would be to “hunt” and “gather” a Christmas tree! I suspect we’ll settle down with an artificial tree when the boys are out of the house, but for this season of life it sure is a lot of fun. And yes, it smells wonderful!