O Christmas Tree

Christmas trees are a little controversial.  I mean, harvesting a tree for no other resource than it's beauty is extremely wasteful and pretty indulgent when you think about it.  But, it's a difficult symbol to let go of.  For these reasons, a couple of years ago Ian and I decided that we would start a new holiday tradition.

We would purchase a live tree from a nursery, decorate it for Christmas and then plant it on Mom and Bruce's property when the season was over.

It wasn't feasible to begin this in Korea, for obvious reasons, so this year was our first chance to keep our promise to ourselves.  We went over to the Portland Nursery and talked to the folks about having an Evergreen inside.  It turns out, that they shouldn't hang out indoors too long; in fact, you really don't want to pass ten days.  The temperature and light change is pretty stressful for the tree.  Luckily, we're more of a "grab a blanket" than "turn on the heater" couple, so our apartment isn't oppressively warm (most people would probably call it cold). We also put the tree in front of a window, so that it would get all the light available, of course we also had our neighbors in mind and wanted to join the neighborhood by having a tree in the window for all to see.

We waited until today to pick up the tree.  Ian got it after work.  It's pretty heavy, so it was rather amusing getting it up the stairs.

Actual size.  Propped up on boxes to be seen out the window.

It's pretty weird to have a tree up with no furniture and a totally unorganized apartment.  But, I'm very happy to have it.  We couldn't make use of the other Christmas decorations Mom gave us because there's no place to put anything.  Just piles of stuff.  We'll have to throw a party next year.

At $60 for a 4' Douglas Fir, a live Christmas tree is definitely not the more affordable option.  I suppose a fake tree might be more cost effective while still considering the environment.  But, this tree will get to live on and serve its purpose (creating fresh air and a habitat) for the rest of its natural lifespan.  Plus, since it's alive and well, I like to think that its really confused about why its so dressed up.

We'll get to see our trees get bigger and bigger and serve birds and other animals on Mom and Bruce's property.  In that way, our holiday traditions will be present year 'round, and that alone is good incentive for the extra cost.

For more information about live Christmas trees, check out your local nursery or go to livingchristmastrees.org