A Christmas tree story
After the holidays people throw their real Christmas trees in the garbage. This is common knowledge to just about everyone, but it wasn’t in my purview until last winter, when I moved into a neighborhood where the New Year brought old trees to the end of every driveway.
There is an explanation for my former ignorance, at least where Christmas trees are concerned.
When I was growing up, my family always replanted our Christmas tree in the backyard, and I naively assumed that that was the way everyone with a real tree did it. I just didn't understand how things usually happened between humans and evergreens, since all my friends and relatives had fake trees that they would re-box and pack away for the rest of the year. But not us. My father hates storing things even more than he hates throwing them away.
Every year, the drill was the same: A week before Christmas my dad and brother Dewby and I would borrow my uncle’s pick-up truck and drive 20 miles to a nursery that sold Christmas trees. But these weren't any ordinary trees: These trees still had their roots intact, albeit under cover of a soiled, torture-style, burlap sack. Dewby and I would run around the nursery throwing snow or dirt at one another while our father helped the arborist load our tree into the bed of the truck. Then we would take it home and store it in our garage. There it would live on the arborist’s RDA of straw, tap water (“one quart, no more, no less”), and love.
On December 23 we would bring the tree into the house and deliver it to its festive resting place: a black, rubber, 15-gallon tub. To keep the tree upright, we bundled old newspapers around the base ― a choice my father settled on after years of using sawdust, which got everywhere and made the house smell like a lumber yard. After the tree was in place, my mother would put a scarlet blanket over the tub, concealing the burlap-rubber monstrosity housed beneath.
Following all the decoration and celebration and confrontation, on January 2 it was time for the tree to go back to the garage for a transitional period. On the following Saturday, without fail, we would carry the tree to the back yard, where it joined a small group of blue spruce and white pine, Christmas trees-cum-windbreakers from seasons past. My father would dig a hole with his spade, take the burlap off the roots, and we would drop the tree into the ground and fill in the hole, creating a mound of earth around the trunk. And that’s the way we did it every year of my childhood, Mom and Dad and Dewby and I in our hats and gloves, standing between the house and our row of evergreens.
At the time I valued our annual Christmas tree tradition as a symbolic way to add beauty to our backyard. Today I view it in another light: as a greener alternative to fresh cut trees and plastic replicas. Unlike fake trees, live trees smell magnificent and add character to one's living space. But more importantly, you can repurpose them after the holidays by returning them to the earth, whether you have a large yard or no yard at all (in which case, you could donate your tree to a local park, or to your city, county, or state). So this holiday season, if your budget and housing arrangement make it feasible, consider buying a living tree for your living room.
Living, rooted trees are now available at several area nurseries, including Tucker’s Tree Farm (234-2917), near Mattoon; Four E’s Trees (864-4704) and Greentree Christmas Tree Farm (423-1558), in Decatur; and Bomke’s Patch (626-1636), in Springfield.
Image of tree farm from inhabitat.com.
Second image from www.downeast.com.
Most Recent Culture Comments
@Jason: You’re right about that. I get groceries at Schnucks (they carry what I buy, which I can’t say of any other single grocery store in town), and if they have a beer I’m in the market for it’s usually a quarter or two cheaper per 6-…
Best Neighborhood Bar (& Grill) : Urbana - My ‘hood- the ‘Boom! http://www.boomerangbarandgrill.com Go on a Wing Wednesday or Fish Friday, or see a band play some night. Local blue-collar Urbana terroir galore. My only beer snobbish gripe is lack of a pale hopped ale, but you…
The one thing that’s bothered me for a while about the Friar is that, for most commonly purchased adult beverages, you can actually walk down the strip mall to Schnucks and get them cheaper. It makes no sense, but there it is. I suspect it’s because Schnucks…
Maybe I complained enough in person. One time I even explained to the (wholly uninterested) clerk how to navigate the Illinois Statutes web page, and Savoy’s Municipal Code database I wouldn’t know because I only go there when I want to pay 30% more for anything, which is never.
@Rob: You seem to have the weirdest experiences. I’m in Friar Tuck every other week (don’t tell my mom that I’m a lush). They never fail to ask for my birth date but never my age, they never card afterwards, and they often allow me to use…
This column affords me a long-awaited opportunity. I’ve wanted to write my own column called Fuck You Friar Tuck Liquors. but I always thought it’d be too pithy. Here, I can say Fuck You Friar Tuck Liquors and not feel bothered to stretch it out to 750…
Ha! Exactly. You, sir, are welcome at the bar in My House.
Why wait ‘til 3 pm?
I’m excited to go tonight- should be very fun!
Most Recent Comments
“It was at this point, before he started his business, that working with city employees should’ve raised red flags…” But they didn’t because: 1) The City Clerk’s office originally mis-interpreted the rules, or are indeed re-interpreting them. 2) Champaign’s brick-n-mortar merchants hadn’t yet started whining about The Crave Truck.
Super cool! Excellent track, Excellent band.
Looking forward to trying this place!
I’m in the middle (or the beginning or end, depending on how you look at it) of re-reading Slaughterhouse Five. What a great companion column.
Get yours early. The Rave’s CD will be available at Exile and at The C-U Flea on Saturday. C-U Flea details here: http://www.smilepolitely.com/news/sp_radio_podcast_c-u_flea_arrives/
I don’t know about Gerard and a random police sargeant. My (mild) outrage is based on this: “...he worked closely with Champaign City Clerk Marilyn Banks to make sure he was licensed properly as a transient food peddler, filling out the necessary paperwork and paying a $225…
Local Yocal pretty much nails it here. I suspect there will be merchants who oppose food trucks because they arguably don’t pay their fair share to locate their trucks in high traffic (high rent) areas. The food trucks take away business from rent payers, park in city…
Oh nice! I’d totally vote for Matt Campbell!
“Smile Politely sports writer announces candidacy for city government.”
I also got to visit Big Grove Tavern during the soft open and definitely enjoyed the pork belly the most of all the dishes I sampled. The cheesy grits and the vinegary pickled vegetables were a perfect compliment to the rich pork belly.
The Alan Partridge lookalike on the right in the first small photo has nothing to condescend to anyone about. AH HA!
Snell and the little Hitlers of the neighborhood association need to chill out. Legitimate businesses should have the freedom to exist without having to endure the slings and arrows of ignorant and misguided opposition.
represent, Matt.
Yeah, I’d agree that Transporter Room 3 is the worst house venue I’ve ever seen.
Food trucks are the start-up, small businesses of the future for those unable to afford real estate. No surprise, that merchants who pay rent, utilities, and maintenance on a property would despise the traveling competition. Or developers who build more empty retail spaces would want to close…
Not so much far-right Tea Party as a balanced, moderate viewpoint between letting businesses succeed and protecting society with reasonable regulations. In spite of what the city reps are saying, the interpretation of policy on this issue certainly has changed. Letting a business start up under one…
I think it’s neat that SP has turned rightward, now espousing a Tea Party-style frustration with government regulations & taxes.
This makes me so sad. (Happy to live in Urbana, though!) Crave Truck has been a GREAT addition to the food choices in C-U, and it’d be a travesty to chase them away. This town should be supporting small businesses. I’m glad to hear that they’ll still…
*slow. clap.* Still offering no threat of intelligence…. I know I said I thought you should just write this whole column yourself next year, Isaac, but now that you’ve gone and taken a “part deux” run at it, I’d like to modify my request: Best Music 2013,…
Actually, it’s kind of nice, the quiet. John Heoffleur’s engaging commentary/dialogue is sorely missed, however. In lieu of someone intelligent saying something, I’ve compiled a list of Honourable Mentions: BEST ROCK BAND: Take Care ::these gentlemen have four completely different sets at their disposal right now (which…
Facebook
Twitter
Full Site
The Alan Partridge lookalike on the right in the first small photo has nothing to condescend to anyone about. AH HA!