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It is quite petty of me, but I have always looked down my nose at people who had "fake" Christmas trees, those plastic affairs, or what ever those artificial things are made of. I really am getting better about this, but as a child I really thought less of people who when the Christmas season came along, just pulled that tree right out of the box, looking just the same as last year. But I have reformed, now I just survey them with pity.
My family are just city people, we don't actually go chop our tree down, but it is still an adventure to load all eight of us up in our giant van, drive to the best tree lot(read most inexpensive/Lowe's) and find the perfect tree.
This year "Larry" was the perfect tree. It was a fierce battle between him and "Harold", with pretty much a 50-50 split of the family. But Mom was for the more shapely "Larry" and he won out in the end. Being unable to stand my defeat and a tree named "Larry", I re-christened him with the grand title, "Lord Andrew Lindsey", and soon got over the loss of "Harold". I am sure a good and kind family took him home. Such lovely family memories could not be acquired with the simple opening of a box.
A real tree is so much more alive. You have to feed it, your Dad gets you get in trouble if you don't; you can smell it, what would you if you couldn't walk home after a long day and smell that piney Christmas smell pervading your home?
And of course with a real Christmas tree there is the excitement of the end. The vacuuming up of hundreds of brittle little needles, the "re-planting" of the tree outside and watching it get decorated again with snow.
As I grow older I fear I am loosing a little of the Christmas tree magic. I no longer start begging to go get our tree the minute the Thanksgiving dishes are dry. But will never lose it remotely enough to induce me to go for the plastic. The whole ritual of retrieving a tree is too much to give up, the tradition too lovely to forget, the over all experience too deeply ingrained to even try.

Learn more about this author, Rebecca Hurt.
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