TO CUT DOWN -- OR ASSEMBLE?

Our family tradition for many years was to trek through a nearby forest and cut down, with a hand saw, our personally selected Christmas tree. In those days it was pure "fun". For one thing, we lived in California then, and the weather was usually warm and sunny – even in December – with few exceptions.

The drive home with a gorgeous trophy tree on the car’s roof was almost as good as being in the Thanksgiving Day parade.

Gregg and Doug, our then young sons, loved to scamper from tree to tree hollering, “I like THIS one”. Followed by, “No, I like THIS ONE!” After a long search, which usually included a good degree of debate, we’d find a semblance of consensus. I think our boys began to learn the meaning of “compromise” with this exercise.

Kay Lynne likes very full (think squatty and wide) trees. I also like full trees but not as “wide” at the bottom. I like the “classic” shape – whatever that is. The boys each also had their own ideas about what a perfect tree should look like. Whether or not the considered tree had a single, straight enough, top branch on which to place the star, always produced considerable additional deliberation.

We moved to Oregon in 1981 when Gregg was in junior high school and Doug was in elementary school. In Oregon, the tree cutting tradition took on two added dimensions – a colder climate and seasonal weather. During one of the early Decembers in Oregon I remember the four of us driving out past Carver in eastern Clackamas county to a beautiful hillside tree farm.

Only it wasn’t beautiful that day. It was raining steadily as is customary in Oregon. And it was cold. And muddy. And slippery. By the time we had tromped around every corner of the farm and agreed on a tree, we were all soaked, freezing and pasted with mud – though I’m sure the boys felt nothing but elation.

Then, of course, DAD had to lay down in said mud and try to saw the tree down. I think it was one of those “thick-bottomed” trees my wife likes – which correspondingly had a very thick trunk and wouldn’t fit the tree stand when we got it home.

I believe it was this particular experience, now etched indelibly in my memory, that caused me to begin glancing at – gasp! – artificial trees. Manufactured trees are made out of who knows what, but they can look pretty good – especially when decorated.

For years I only looked at artificial trees, occasionally dropping positive comments which landed on deaf ears. As I checked into them, I found out that they only take about an hour or less to assemble.

There are a half dozen or more layers of branches, each of whose length varies, from the longest at the bottom to the shortest at the top. You just stick each branch into the “trunk”, level by level, and – presto – you have a tree. And NO accompanying flu.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide if our tree is hand cut – or assembled from a box. Take a look at the photo and come to your own conclusion. The only thing you can’t enjoy via this method is the fragrance.