I grew up in south Florida where, when it was time to buy a Christmas tree, we went to the garden center at Home Depot, or to a field (or empty parking lot) that had a tent and a bunch of trees. We walked the aisles, pointed at a tree, a nice person wrapped it up and we went home.
When my siblings and I got older, we started getting fake trees and filling all the outlets around the house with Glade plug-ins "Fresh Pine". It gave us the look (and smell) of the Christmas tree (without all the annoying needle droppings, watering the tree- or better yet, forgetting to water the tree and then it dies before Christmas...whatever)
So when the hubs and I were setting up for our first Christmas together, I did what I knew, I took him to the garden center at Walmart (we are on a budget) and found a beautiful boxed tree, took it home, fluffed it, got some plug-ins and BAM! Instant Christmas.
His parents however have a different approach to Christmas. A more, traditional, less plastic approach. They go out to a tree farm (where they breed little baby trees into big, tall, strong trees!) and ride a horse drawn carriage out to a field, grab a saw, find a tree and cut 'er down.
I have never "cut 'er down" before, so my first time was a bit of a learning experience. Especially since I didn't understand this lumberjack approach to the holiday. It was all very scenic being led out to the middle of a field by horses wearing jingle bells and snow falling on my face (causing my mascara to run...) but my favorite part came when we were all done, the tree loaded and we got to walk around the cute Christmas store!
The hubs and I wandered for a while. Noticing tons of snowmen, lots of snowflakes, ornaments and Santa's. Then he spotted the mother load. Three Santa's that were all bending one way or another. So, while we didn't end up with a real tree, we did buy three awesome Santa's.
This year when we pulled out the Christmas tree from the bags we keep it in (to preserve the plastic, you know...) we thought long and hard where to put our super unique Santa's. And we found just the place...
So while we might never have a real tree (which I know kills my mother-in-law a little every year...sorry Di) we will always have three wonderful Santa's to remind us of a wonderful tree cutting ceremony!
