My Barnyard View : Christmas tree

Real or artificial- isn't that the first big holiday decision newlyweds have to tackle when celebrating their first Christmas together? For John and I, there was no "great tree debate." Both of our families always had a real Christmas tree, so the decision was made. We did however have to reminisce about the trees of our youth.

Since John and I both grew up on farms with wooded acres, there was absolutely no good reason to purchase a tree when we had perfectly good Christmas trees, for free, practically growing in our own backyard. I use the term "perfectly good" very loosely here. Looking back at photos from when I was a kid, our trees would make even Charlie Brown laugh out loud.

John with his mom and sister Ruth.

I think it was the joy of the hunt, rather than the finished product that we enjoyed so much. My entire family went on the search for that perfect tree, with dad pulling us kids on the toboggan. We looked and looked but nothing seemed just right until we were so cold we could barely feel our toes, then miraculously every tree looked great. We tramped through knee-high snow on the way home since our prize tree got the toboggan ride this time.

When I was in 6th grade I spent several weeks leading up to Christmas, in the hospital. Since I was heading home just days before Christmas, my mom thought a special tree was in order. For the first time EVER, my family BOUGHT a Christmas tree. This was not just any old tree either, but a powder blue, flocked tree, complete with shiny dark blue and silver ornaments and blue spotlights! It was actually rather pretty, but deep inside I still longed for the Charlie Brown tree with the traditional ornaments. Traditions...hard to change, especially at the holidays. And then of course there's the "great tinsel debate," to have or have not? Maybe we can save that debate for another day.