by Princess Cordelia

Created on: July 14, 2008

Christmas to me, is a time of joy, of giving and celebrating the birth of Christ. To cut a tree for that celebration is a paradox. We are celebrating the birth of Christ and yet killing a living thing; a tree.

At a time when global warming is threatening the environment in which we live in, it is worth considering saving trees rather than further eroding our planet. The loss of several thousands/millions of trees durign Christmas could affect the already fast depleting natural resources/ defences we have to counter gloal warming. If we keep chopping trees down just for a few weeks of sticking ornaments in them, sooner or later there would be fewer trees or half grown trees (due to the already present effect of climate change as a result of global warming).

My parents were very conscious of the environment and as children, my brother and I were allowed to pick cones fallen from the tree but mention wanting a live tree and there was a deafening silence. Trees should not be chopped down for a few weeks' pleasure.

Christmas trees have always fascinated me. I liked seeing how they (live trees) swayed in the wind amidst the other pines. I loved their shape, their sturdiness, their colour. I loved everything about a Christmas tree, albeit, I loved it best when the tree was still firmly rooted to the ground. Cutting it and placing it in the house so I could celebrate Christmas and then throwing it out when it started to be less green was just not for me.

So what do I do around Christmas time, if I'm not using a live tree? I don't believe in the plastic trees being sold. As children we used them. However, we stopped using them the day my brother and I discovered cloth trees. When I was about fifteen, we couldn't find our plastic tree. We found all the ornaments, everything bu the elusive tree. That was when I noticed a green felt cloth that had been lying in our attic for a long time. We washed the cloth and pinned it to a pyramid of boxes we'd shifted to the lving room. Low and behold, we had our very own, and very first cloth tree. We pinned the ornaments, the lights on the tree and stuck the presents under it. It was an amazing sight. Since then, our tree has always been made of cloth. Depending on the number of boxes we have lying around each year, the tree varies in height and width. I've topyed with the idea of stitching a tree but we figured this is more fun, putting the boxes in a pyramid shape. You should try it sometime.

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