The Right Tree

About this time every year our family heads out on a journey of great import—obtain a tree to decorate for Christmas.  The two boys are now on their own,  but we have been fortunate for at least one to join us. If for no other reason than to help haul the tree.  A common item in Christian households, I wrote a past blog, from Dec. 2015, on the history of Christmas trees which you can find here.  Decorated with strands of lights and ornaments, a Christmas tree is a way to help offset the dark days common in the northern hemisphere this time of year.  Currently, we are about three weeks to the shortest day of the year—December 21.  How fitting that we look forward to the day that Christians recognize Christmas, which is often a metaphor for the Christ child.   

Our selected tree, Nov. 27, 2016

Decorating for Christmas can be as simple as doing little, perhaps a small artificial tree, or it can be more grand with significant ornamentation and decoration.  Some places showcase Christmas decorations, such as the Wisconsin Governor’s mansion in Maple Bluff.  And there is the Christmas light display in Madison’s Olin Park which can draw long lines of cars with anxious adults and children.   As we age, my wife and I have taken to decorating somewhat less than we did in the past.  Still, the centerpiece for Christmas decorating is the Christmas Tree. 

Tree at the Governor's Mansion, 2016

The tree is often set up in the living room of a home, which may be the least used room in the house, but it provides a commanding presence for the room.  How can it not with its lights and ornaments.  It is also often the largest piece of Christmas decoration in a household as it will often it will stretch from floor to ceiling, not to mention its breadth.  The quest for a tree is a whole other story.  The journey may surprise and when you leave a tried and true place for another locale you wonder if you had made the correct decision.  First of all, we get a real tree,  the next decision is do we purchase a pre-cut tree, or visit a cut-your-own location.  Over our past 26 years of marriage we have preferred to cut our own, in all but in couple those years.  Most years we have had our best success at a Christmas tree farm west of Middleton, but two years ago we noticed that few trees remained of the size and type we prefer.  We prefer a balsam fir, with little shearing.   At that farm, the stock of those trees had declined so we began a move to different location.  What we find is that Frasier firs are now the predominant type of tree.  The place we went this past Sunday had a great number of Frasier’s, including most of the younger trees.  It had few balsam firs.

Foyer decoration in Governor's Mansion

The locations we went both last and this year were between Sun Prairie and Marshall near Highway 19.  Both had trees of similar height, but unfortunately most all were highly sheared.  We find that sheared trees provide too tight of a structure—you do not hang ornaments so much as drape them on the tree.  Last year, for the first time, we had a Canaan fir.  I had only come across Canaan firs a few years earlier at the tree farm west of Middleton.   Canaan fir,  also called West Virginia balsam fir, is described as follows by Ricky Bates of Penn State:  “a little known tree that is native to isolated pockets in the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia. Some have suggested that, during the last glacial period, a continuous fir population extended from North Carolina north along the Appalachian mountain range into Canada. As the climate changed, fir in the Appalachian mountains were replaced by other species at lower elevations, isolating balsam fir to the north, Fraser fir at higher elevations in Virginia and North Carolina, and Canaan fir at higher elevations in parts of Virginia and West Virginia. The tree takes its common name from the Canaan Valley northeast of Elkins, West Virginia.”  Heck, I thought it was a modern hybrid, not realizing it was a nature induced tree, and I ithought it was named after the site of miracle of water into wine.  The Canaan valley of the Appalachians is quite distant from Wisconsin, but the wonder of tree adaptability is one of the wonders of nature.

Governor's Residence decoration

The wonders of a tree search also never quite the same.  If you expect to spend time on an overcast, but otherwise fairly pleasant late autumn afternoon walking through rows and rows of trees to find just the right tree, if my spouse is with you, you will be disappointed.  She is a no-nonsense type of person and has this way of rather quickly pointing out a tree.   She gets perturbed when I take time exploring other trees, when she knows the one she picked is the “right” tree.   Trips to the farm west of Middleton require quite a bit of walking, but more important a long haul as the parking area is quite distant from the fields.  But the location this year we could drive to the edge of varied fields of trees using farm lanes.   A marked difference from our past mainstay, the tree farm west of Middleton.  The farm lanes allowed easy access to linear fields of trees.   No long haul up and down hills was necessary.   As we were driving to a field, my wife says: “what about that one”.  Well, we had just arrived, and in my mind, why not search some more.  We drove to a couple more distant fields and scouted out for a nice tree.  Our son headed another way, and with modern cellphone communications sent a message to my wife about a possible tree.  After deciding it was a tad too short, we headed back to view the fields near the entrance, and with my wife getting anxious that someone else may grab the tree she had discovered by purely looking out the car window.  We passed that tree (with of course her pointing it out once again). Probably ten times she had said we should just cut that tree.  I was still not ready to end the journey so, nkowing her growing concern of a possible loss of a quality tree, I quickly scouted out a few more fields.  As most readers probably know by this point, we ended up with the one suggested by my spouse. I am not sure what would have happened to me if someone had cut it “out from under us.”    Choosing a tree requires a balancing of decisions, over height it will be in the house, branch structure, width when set in the stand, and what side will go toward the wall.   My spouse was desirous of a more narrow tree this year, but she had to balance a tree she liked with the fact that is wider than what she had hoped.  A Frasier fir would provide the less width tree, but we find that species often lacking in some qualities that we prefer—such as the balsam tree smell and the needle structure.  Frasier’s may have stronger branches, but we find that a more open tree (non-sheared) allows us an ability to place heavier ornaments to the inside, but still be seen.

Tree in library of Governor's residence

While every year we try to find what will be the right tree, we also have found that lights and ornaments will well dress a tree.  Most (non-sheared) trees will look quite acceptable in the end.  I really don't think we have been disappointed.  We have had years of trees most would consider too bare, turn out to be respectable.   The tree this year was on the dirt lane, and being a tall tree, I am sure it was passed over for many years.   This does not even get to selected trees in past years when it is was one of the few lone taller trees in a cut over field.  As much as we may think we need the perfect tree, we do not need perfection.  You find the one that works for your tastes and methods.  If one wants perfect form and shape an artificial tree could well do.  Real trees give not only the nice scent (some better than others), but each is unique.  They may challenge us in the odyssey of our ornamentation, but that is all part of the journey to Christmas.  We get a tree to celebrate the birth of an individual born in the most humble surroundings over two thousand years ago.  It would do us all well as we continue this advent journey to reflect on the true meaning of the day, and what the advent jouirney means to each of us.