Just the words conjure up scenes from the movie A Christmas Story, which is mandatory of you have not seen it yet.
It has been many years since I bought a tree. I own a fake tree that I don’t always put up , But I do have memories of tree shopping as a child.
My father had a friend who sold Fireworks in the summer, Pumpkins in the fall, and Christmas trees in the winter. My father is the consummate salesman, (he can sell snow to an Eskimos) so he was always paid a few bucks to help out selling sparklers or pumpkins or fir trees.
My mother would bundle up both me and my sister and turn us over to my father. I will always remember the excitement of getting there after dark, the trees all in rows, with white lights criss-crossing above each column, illuminating the area and setting off the pungent smell of pine with the heat of their bulbs.
Since my father worked there, we got the choice place by the fire and drank hot apple cider until we were ill.
Our dad would then dress his arm with a 2 inch thick glove and start holding up trees for us to look at. Of course as kids they all looked great to us, but he always found the “bald spot” and rejected one after the other. After 20 or so trees, he would get tired and find one that was perfect, except for the bald spot, which did not matter since the tree went in the corner anyway. Usually it ended up being the first or second tree we had looked at in the beginning. So the new house guest was carefully tied to the top of the car and brought home, to live out the rest of its life being loved and adored. Not a bad way to go.
Things are a little different today. I never got around to having kids of my own and have had too many semi permanent lives to create any sense of family or tradition for any of the holidays. Therefore, I have spent many a Christmas at other relatives’ homes, the welcome observer to their traditions, listening to their Christmas tree excursions by the fire, which keeps the cold at bay for a while.
May you all keep your traditions close to your hearts, and find that perfect tree this year, bald spot and all.
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