I used to have real trees. And while I love the scent of pine in the house, I hate the showers of needles whenever you bump the tree when it dries out. Vacuuming them up is a pain. And they feel like little porcupine quills when the tree is really dry and dead. When it's finally time to get rid of the tree, you like you've been in a fight with an angry badger by the time you've wrestled it out of the house and disposed of it. So usually a few fresh branches on the mantle or a wreath is enough forest in the house for me.
One time when I was little, my dad got a permit to cut down a tree in the national forest area in the Jemez mountains. We bundled up in coats, scarves and gloves, packed some hot cocoa and chili beans, and went off in search of the perfect tree. We drove for hours, tumbling out of the car every so often to stomp through the snow, looking for a good, full tree. Well, unless they are cultivated, the branches on those trees are pretty sparse. I kept gazing wistfully at the tops of the tall, towering trees, wishing we could just "top" one and be done with it. But of course that wasn't legal. What we ended up with was a Charlie Brown tree.
I bought a couple of artificial Christmas trees on New Year's Day last year. One is tall and slender, which I have in my classroom. And the other one, tall and fatter at the bottom, is at home. They are both pre-strung with lights. And they both come in three sections and can be assembled really quickly. I love them both. One only cost $7 and the other about $13.50. I figured that you can't get lights that cheaply, so they were well worth it. One of the trees had a light burned out when I put it up, which caused a whole section to be out. But I got one of those little light testers, and sure enough, it worked. I found that dead bulb easily. It was much better than what I envisioned, pulling out each bulb one at a time and replacing it with another until I found it.
Pics forthcoming.
except that applies to my wife.
