Comments on: The Christmas tree ritual http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/ Undercover in the French Alps Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:27:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Gigi http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-919 Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:26:30 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-919 oops. Bad grammar. Should be ‘has bitten’… :-(

]]> By: Gigi http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-918 Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:24:53 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-918 For the past ten years, we’ve had a plastic tree – my husband bought it, insisting it was more practical, more economical and tidier. Well, the tree has finally bit the dust (like the marriage) and this year I promised the children I’d buy a real one.

Guess what? I went to buy one – but all I could see were these poor sawed- off Christmas trees standing forlornly in the supermarket car park when they should have been up there, on the mountainside, standing tall and proud in the crisp frosty mountain air…

I bought a plastic one :-)

]]> By: Mary Alice http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-886 Sat, 15 Dec 2007 11:56:28 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-886 This was such a nice story. Brought back memories of our own family tradition back in the Northern California Mountains….going out into the forest with the thermos filled with hot chocolate, searching and sawing our tree and the family tailgate picnic in the snow.

]]> By: Kathleen http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-884 Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:09:17 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-884 When I was a teenager, my father was still going out looking for the perfect tree from the acres of woods (not all ours) that surrounded our home. He would come home with the most beautiful trees! It wasn’t until I was employed in the same office as the wife of one of my father’s work buddies, that I came to know that Dad would go to Darryl’s home, they’d watch some sports, down a few beers, and then go next door to the tree farm to buy their trees.
I love these kinds of stories…the memories are with us forever.

]]> By: AuthorMomWithDogs http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-880 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 22:29:56 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-880 I know what you mean about the nicely shaped ones. But, for me, there’s something about trudging through the snow with kids in tow, to pick out your own from your own land that I like too.

]]> By: Cari http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-879 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 18:54:34 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-879 I sure know how you feel…I remember the California Christmas trees so well and the smell, sigh…Back in Africa, Xmas tree lots were non-existent so we would cut one of the self seeded cypress trees we had growing on the farm – every year ’til we left. They smelled wonderful, but different! Now I really miss their lovely spicy smell…hope you find that special tree this year!

]]> By: Lizzy http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-878 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:37:55 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-878 Oh, I feel for you. I was raised with a fake Christmas tree and I finally convinced my husband to get me one a few years back. This year, though, someone insisted we have a real one and they even bought it and delivered it to us. It was so sweet of them, but the tree is UGLY. There are huge gaps and holes through the whole thing and it looks like someone cut down the center of the top of it, for about a foot or two, and removed one side.

However, going out and cutting your own tree from off your own property does sound romantic.

]]> By: the farmers wife http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-876 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:00:20 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-876 When I got to the part in your story about the missing branches on the north side of the tree I said to myself, “She’d have to shove it up against a wall”. Not acceptable. HA. I thnk each family has Christmas tree traditions and many funny stories to go along with them. In the U.S. a scraggly, misshaped Christmas tree is referred to as a Charlie Brown tree. My husband brought home many a Charlie Brown tree.

]]> By: tut-tut http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-871 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 01:43:17 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-871 I remember trudging through the snow for the perfect tree . . . these days it’s a trip to the “tree center” with the giant inflated Santa out front. Certainly not the same at all.

]]> By: Heidi http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-870 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:49:27 +0000 http://mountaindweller.com/2007/12/12/the-christmas-tree-ritual/#comment-870 LOL! I can see why your husband would feel silly buying a tree when you have so many around you, but, on the other hand, I so understand your need for a ‘proper’ Christmas tree. I still struggle with the Canadian Xmas trees, b/c they are of a different kind than the Scandinavian ones I grew up with. I’m getting used to them, but I don’t *like* them as much.

And the tree *must* still be symmetrical. :)

Good luck – I hope you find the perfect tree.

Heidi

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