Oh Christmas Tree

Many in the U.S. set up a Christmas Tree.   After all, it is around the decorated tree that a family will  open gifts, and gather for conversation. It is the centerpiece of a Christmas celebration.  My wife and I have always had a real Christmas Tree, and for most years we have cut our own at a Tree Farm.  Last week we watched the television show "Shark Tank" which provides part of the 1% the ability to earn even more money.  In that episode, a person who grew up in Wisconsin developed an artificial Christmas Tree that requires very little assembly and comes fully decorated.  Oh Christmas tree, how difficult you can be to set up.

1992 Looking for Christmas Tree

I am not sure why, but it seems the past few, perhaps several, years we have struggled more and more to get the tree to stay in the stand properly.  I have a few theories, which I may expound on later, but we had trouble again this year.  We thought we had it all in good order, when  in putting on the last strand of lights the tree began to tip.  Before we began setting up the tree my wife said, "Perhaps we should get a new tree stand," but the miser in me thought we should be able to use the one we had.  With the tree tipping we tried several times to right the tree but were unsuccessful.   With the difficult trial this year, combined with those in the past few years, my wife noted that the fake tree on Shark Tank, even though it sells for about $200, was looking pretty good.  I gave in and we made a trip to the hardware store to purchase a new tree stand.  The wife was right, we should have done so earlier.  We took the almost 8' tree, lights and all, out of the stand and got it in the new stand, and a few adjustments and the tree was standing pretty straight.  The stand we purchased, was still plastic, but it had five pins to hold against the tree rather than four.  However, it also had a metal piece with spikes that can help hold the trunk in place, something our old plastic stand did not contain, and the five stabilizing prongs had a nut with one end serrated to go against and grab the trunk.  Without the spike in the old stand, I think the tree had the ability to move slightly and then even more. Years ago we had purchased the now old stand because it had great water capacity, and even a side reservoir that worked by a siphon. Beyond the stand, and our capabilities, part of the problem may also be the tree.

Preparing to cut 2014 tree
Same tree farm as in 1992

The tree we selected is somewhat off kilter itself, with more branches and heavier on one side than the other.  We have also had the issue where the trunk is crooked, and hence a problem with getting the tree aligned.  This year it may not be perfect, but we have learned to sometimes leave well enough alone. Fiddle with the tree too much and you may get it to the point where you have done more harm than good.  We noticed that they make stands that cost up to $100.  Black and Decker has a stand for about $60 that has devices into which you plunge the tree down into the stand that will grip the tree, almost like a the gear that locks in place.  As I was awake laying in bed the next morning, I wondered if plastic stands lose some of their shape over time and hence do not hold trees as well as they do for the first several years.  Is there an imperceptible fatigue in the plastic that affects the positioning and holding of the tree, or is it simply us?  

Hauling 2014 tree

We have also noticed that tree trunks seem to be smaller.  For 29 years we have been installing the same height tree in the house--about eight feet, but of course a few times we have cut 3 feet or more off to get that height, and at other times it is a foot.  most often it has been about two feet cut off.  This year we cut less than a foot off the bottom to get the height.  Anyway, the trunks seem less wide, such that it became standard practice for the past several years in using the now old plastic stand to use small hunks of wood to fill the gap between the pins and the tree trunk.  The new stand did not require use of the wood hunks. I wonder if all of the precipitation, even though in wet years the annual ring should be wider, the branches grow out much more than usual. 

Narrow 2015 tree

We tend not to prefer well-sheared trees, as we desire more of a natural appearance.  Most any tree you will find at a tree farm has had some shearing, so finding one that fits our criteria can be difficult.  This year I think we got that.  As I write this, I look at the tree and think it is tilting, so even though I know that the top 20% or so of the tree is bent giving it a slight tilt, I still walk over to eye the trunk for being perpendicular.  We also tend to wide trees.  Those that are wider than they are tall,  I call Hovel trees. This year, our tree misses the Hovel tree cut as it measures to just under 7 feet wide.  We also like to buy a balsam fir, but more and more tree farms in the area are only growing fraser fir and the natural hybrid of fraser and balsam--the Canaan fir (originally found in the mountains of West Virginia).  The tree farm which we used this and the past couple years has some balsam, but not many, and generally mixed in with the other varieties.

2013 tree

This year as we were driving to the tree farm, my wife noted to me that there was not going to be long walks through the various sections of the tree lot to select a tree.  I have a habit of wanting to investigate much of the available selection of trees that meet our criteria.  One problem is telling the balsam from the Canaan.  I think I have the Balsam-- Fraser differences down, but have I less knowledge of a Canaan.  Last year I think we picked a Canaan.  Since, the order came from the boss to limit how much we walked to find a tree we limited our search to part of one field.  What we generally conclude is that regardless of what is picked, once a tree is decorated many of the less favorable aspects of the tree go away.  In is not unlike the Linus tree in the Peanuts Christmas special.

2019 decorated tree

Christmas trees, are not unlike us.  Each has its good traits, and yes, less desirable traits, or flaws.  Each is unique.  Each is different.  The varied nature of trees is good to meet the varied tastes that each of us have.  As we look to celebrate Christmas I think we may recall the trials some will have in decorating for the holiday season, but the difficulty of such decorating probably comes no where near  the trials a young woman giving birth in a manger had over 2000 years ago.