It’s that time of year again to buy a Christmas tree. My daughter and I have been eyeballing the tree lots as we do things in town. I have noticed that most of them are full of big, beautiful trees. Usually, by this time of year, the lots are pretty empty, and we end up buying the dregs. We always find a nice tree, but it’s always one of the last ones.
I see these full lots as a sign of the bad economy. People can’t afford to buy trees this year? Most of the tree sellers don’t take credit cards, and I think a lot of America is living on credit cards these days.
Last year, I vowed to buy the Charlie Brown Christmas tree from now on – definitely the one no one wants, the raggy one, the uneven one, the littlest one, the ugly one. That’s how we got our dog at the shelter. We looked at the ones that had been there a long time, the ones no one wanted. Mr Big had been there the longest, and no one had taken him home in 150 days, so we did. He is awesome, by the way!
So… back to trees……..
This year, we have tossed around the idea of getting a fake tree to spare ourselves the annual shopping, guessing if a tree will fit, lopping off the bottom, remembering to water, then dragging it out to the brush pile in January, needles dropping all the way. A tree you put back in the box and into the storage room sounds so easy and appealing.
But it is our dire need for convenience that has driven us from nature to unsustainable living!
The New York Times says a fake tree would have to be used for 20 years to offset it’s unsustainable manufacture and disposal. ‘The annual carbon emissions associated with using a real tree every year were just one-third of those created by an artificial tree over a typical six-year lifespan. Most fake trees also contain polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, which produces carcinogens during manufacturing and disposal.’
So, cross fake tree of my list of things to buy this week. I could go to the thrift store, though………
What are other options?
> Buy a cut tree. Here in New Mexico, locals go to the mountains and cut them. They get a permit to cut a certain number, so it’s not a big free-for-all. In other places, trees are grown on a farm and transported. Some of the lots here are full of those kinds of trees. I think people have the idea that the trucks of trees are cut from forests, national or otherwise. They aren’t. They are grown for the purpose of selling this time of year. The forests remain intact. If you do buy a cut tree, take it out back for wildlife to live and nest in. If you have neighbors, collect theirs, too. If you don’t have a yard, find a way to dispose of it so it will be recycled – become part of a brush pile or be chipped into mulch. Some towns will collect them for that very purpose.
> Buy a live tree. This takes a little planning. You should plant the tree as soon as you are done with it, so you need to dig a hole for it beforehand, read: before the ground freezes. The soil needs to be saved indoors so it’s not frozen. Mix it with some compost, and plant the tree after Christmas. You also should not leave a live tree indoors for more than a week. It is dormant, and the warm temperatures inside will prompt it into growing. Purchase your tree, bring it inside just before Christmas, leave it for a week, then take it out and plant it. You can also leave it in its pot in a shady spot until spring, and water it once a week, but this has never worked for me. Depending on where you get your tree, it may not have been balled and burlapped properly, which will kill the tree. If you get your tree from a reputable nursery, you should be ok. I think it’s better to just plant it when you are done with it.
> Rent a tree. In Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles, there are companies that will rent you a live tree, bringing it to your house and picking it up when you are done. The trees then get planted. This is a very eco-friendly option, a little pricey (up to $125 for a tree), but a great option for those in places where you can’t plant a live tree. Check your area for this service. It would be a great business to start! I have my thinking cap on already….
> Get creative! Here’s what I have done in the past in places or economic times when a tree wasn’t possible.
> When I was 20, I lived in a teeny tiny apartment in New York. I went outside and cut a few small branches from an evergreen, placed them in a wine carafe and tied a red ribbon around the neck. I sat it on the cold part of the radiator.
> A few years later, in cramped quarters in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I cut a small (18″) scrawny evergreen from the woods and brought it in. We cut the lower branches and put it in a vase of water for a week.
> I once made a tree wall-hanging out of fabric scraps. We put gifts on the floor at the bottom.
> We lived a block from a thrift store in Tucson one year, and there we found a tabletop tree with little ornaments already on it. My older (and only, at the time) daughter was 2 1/2, and hadn’t yet been bombarded with the commercialism and the need for the biggest and best. We put that tree on the dining room table and scattered gifts around it and on the floor beneath it. The look on her face when she came in the room was priceless – complete surprise and awe at the magic. That was one of my favorite Christmases.
I still haven’t made up my mind about what we are going to do this year. If it’s earth-shattering, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, do what’s right for you and the environment, and have a lovely holiday.
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