Tradition: Cutting Live Christmas Trees

Where do you get your Christmas tree? From a box in the attic? From a tree farm? From a corner lot? Or do you, like us, take an afternoon and make a trek into ‘the wild’ to find and cut your own trees? There have been occasional years where we’ve gone the tree farm or corner lot route, but most of the time, we’ve gone hunting for our own. Since the birth of our youngest granddaughter (though she won’t be able to claim that much longer!), we’ve made a particular effort to do this with our son, daughter-in-law, and their little girl, as they live nearby.

As you can see, at age 4.5, she’s determined to pick her very own tree and haul it out to the truck! Another tradition we’re trying to establish is having a hot dog roast after we’ve cut our trees. In 2015, we didn’t have enough time. Daylight disappears quickly in the north! But in 2014 and again this year, we (Grampa) started a fire and we (Gramma) spread out a simple hot dog roast. On this particular day (last Friday) it started lightly snowing while we huddled around the fire, and the snow kept coming overnight.

Here’s a glimpse into the last four years of Christmas tree adventures, from age 1.5 through 4.5!

So… why a real tree? It makes sense for us because we live in a place where conifers grow wild. We cut near road right-of-ways or (preferred) under power lines, where the trees will be removed anyway when they get too tall. We love the smell of a real tree, and we love the outing. It’s been a few years since we’ve had snow at the right time, but it’s fun to put on our snowshoes and trek around as well.

Getting a tree the right height and shape is challenging, as our house is very tiny and the living room space is at a premium. But that just adds to the fun!

We’re happy not to have the chemicals from a fake tree in the house, and we’re also happy not to have to store it!

How about you? Real tree? Fake tree? What goes into your decision?