O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

The time has come to choose a Christmas tree for 2021. This has been a yearly event for my wife and I since 1974. We were married in June that year and lived on the second floor of a two-family house on Green Bay's east side. Up until then neither one of us had much experience with fresh Christmas trees other than helping to decorate them when we were kids and hoping there would be presents with our names on them underneath them each year.

That first year we wanted to cut our own and drove thirty miles north of the city to a tree farm. We pulled up to the tree barn in our 1972 Pontiac LeMans and my first thought revolved around whether or not I would be able to get out of the so-called parking lot. There was at least a foot of snow on the ground and the plowing effort had been rather half-hearted. But we were there, so it was time to find our first tree.

The first ornament on the first tree

The owner came out in a deer hunting getup and looked unappreciatively at my car and citified clothing. After describing what kind of tree we were looking for, he handed me an old saw and, with his stub of a cigar, pointed in a general direction into the forest of would-be Christmas trees. We set off into the snow, wishing we had brought along some breadcrumbs.

After about a half hour of slogging past hundreds of unsuitable specimens, we came upon one that seemed like it would meet our needs. We circled it warily, shaking the accumulated snow off its wildly asymmetrical branches. A little trimming here, a little there, and it would look fine we agreed. I got down and, finding the thick trunk, began sawing away. Either the saw had never been sharpened or it had gotten a lot of use already that year because it turned out to be quite a chore to fell Christmas tree number one. But eventually it succumbed to my efforts and we dragged it back to the car.

I knocked on the barn door and the owner came out, this time with a huge dog. At the time I had no experience with dogs, so I quickly paid him the eight bucks for the tree and gave him his saw. He remained outside, and he and the big hound seemed disappointed when we were able to get the tree in the trunk and made it out of the lot without getting stuck.

All decorated and all smiles in 1974

Over the years these tree hunting experiences became a great trove of stories to be told over the Christmas seasons. One tree we got at the local lot and carried it home. One tree fell off the roof of our 1990 Chevy S10 Blazer several times on the way home. In recent years we bought one that was obviously too small when we got it home and it went immediately to a local shelter. The young fellows at the tree farm were surprised to see us back so soon for another tree.

We still go to a tree farm, but we pick out a precut tree instead of cutting our own. They are all perfectly shaped and we have it trimmed to the correct height. It will be shaken and wrapped before it is placed in the back of the truck for an uneventful ride home. This year we will host our 48th Christmas tree and, like every one of its predecessors, it will be the best one ever.

2018 Tree