rinemb - Posted - 12/04/2025:  17:53:13

A week ago we went on our annual fresh Christmas tree shopping trip. This year we were so surprised to find our nearby nursery was able to source wild cut firs
from the mountains of New Mexico. Old fashion, non farmed/groomed and grafted up thick trees like most on the market for years. This more natural fir offers plenty of room to hang ornaments-even deep inside tree. Like the ones our parents always bought on the 1950s-60s, before scotch lines and groomed firs dominated.
Anyway, I put on the lights and our family gathered to decorate, enjoying wine and holiday music. Brad

Owen - Posted - 12/04/2025:  18:52:59

^^ looks good.   

We've used artificial since we "sold the farm" in 2000.... A 6-or-so footer; sits in the middle panel of our 3-panel LR window so it's visible from the outside as well.   It'll stay up until after the Julian Christmas, so I'm in no rush.  My wife, who does the bulk of the decorating, says she'll do it, "When I get around to it." so that's settled!!     My stance is to wait until about the middle of the month ... dunno whether that's a form of protest to counter businesses that start Christmas promotions before Hallowe'en, or just a sign that I'm getting old(er) and crotchety(er).

Edited by - Owen on 12/04/2025 18:59:11

Texasbanjo - Posted - 12/05/2025:  04:16:20

No tree for me. Can't see putting out the money and energy to decorate for just me. I will put out several Christmas type decorations, but no tree.

STUD figmo Al - Posted - 12/05/2025:  04:16:34

Yeah...Liz has the tree bug too...

Gotta drag out all that stuff...

slammer - Posted - 12/05/2025:  05:23:05

Beautiful!!!
Slammer!!!

Mad Hornet - Posted - 12/05/2025:  05:32:04

I put ours up a few days ago. Wife needs to get her decorated!

banjowannabe - Posted - 12/05/2025:  05:43:26

Yeah, very nice. We always get a Fraser Fir from the Lions Club, since they supported my wife's spring camping trip with her class...but I do miss a wild grown tree sometimes. Still have some available on a our farm up north, white pine, red pine, blue spruce, and occasional concolor. I spent one summer hand planting scotch pine and blue spruce - but we had a drought and what that didn't kill, the deer ate. I love white pine, but they can't take a heavy load - and believe me we have a heavy load of lights and ornaments. But my opinion is usually ignored since I'm not the Christmas fanatic. Our house is 90 % decorated (heavily). Getting the tree tomorrow. My Christmas treat is going to hear the Krueger Bros. in Kalamazoo tonight. My sister is playing with them in the Kalamazoo Orchestra and got me row 10 center seats.

banjo bill-e - Posted - 12/05/2025:  06:04:34

We did the big live Fraser Fir for many years and it was grand but now in smaller digs with less energy so put up a skinny artificial tree with the lights already on it. It's still pretty when the other lights are off. And we strung up lights, not quite to Griswald level, but still bright and cheerful on these dark nights.

rinemb - Posted - 12/06/2025:  03:44:05

We plan to take advantage of today’s weather and do our minor front porch decorating. Which means hauling the porch furniture to the storage unit. Marilyn will also decorate our fireplace, so I will lose the use of its gas insert for a while. Brad

mike gregory - Posted - 12/06/2025:  06:39:33

One of my favorite childhood memories is the year that Mom decided we should really make Christmas about Christ, so, instead of putting up a tree, we bought a nice one, sawed off all the branches, and made a very nice bower, or arbor, or whatever you want to call it, in the deep sill of the big window.
Put our large enough Nativity Scene figures in there.
Beautiful.
And then, as Christmas got nearer and nearer, we began to want a tree, TOO.
So, on the 24th, Mom relented, and off the oldest kids went, to get a tree.
By then OF COURSE, all the good ones were gone, and (years before the Charlie Brown show ever aired) they brought home a sad and scraggly tree.
But, Dad, ever resourceful, sawed some branches off the back, drilled holes in the trunk at the front, and it looked just FINE, with our ornaments on it.
Dad and Mom were good at making do, with what little we had, since they were raising eleven kids.

Oh, hey! If I forgot to post it elsewhere:
Merry Christmas.

rinemb - Posted - 12/06/2025:  06:57:58

Mike, that was a nice story. Brad

rinemb - Posted - 12/06/2025:  15:30:06

Look what joined us this year for Christmas. Our daughters English hobby horse. The poor creature had been ignored for decades in our 3rd floor. Yet in the Early 1980s the horse was worshipped by every kid and adult when it was out. We have/had so many photos of our girls riding away on it. Awww, memories! Brad

slammer - Posted - 12/07/2025:  04:13:03

Well, Mrs. Slammer/Claus worked her butt off and did a beautiful job decorating the house for the season. I think we are planting or butts at home for Christmas and enjoy quiet time with just the two of us and no kids or grandkids. We’ve been on the go for a long time and need a break!!!
Slammer!!!

rinemb - Posted - 12/07/2025:  04:20:32

Slammer, the all white lighting looks great.

This may be our last year with incandescent bulbs. The LED selection is getting much better, and some more old fashion looking. We shall see.

rinemb - Posted - 12/07/2025:  04:31:56

Last night we had our oldest daughter over along with a couple that are her age. The guy is a duck dude. We sat in the living room enjoying the tree and visiting. We served an appetizer selection, that included Conard pate’ and I made “eider duck” cocktails. I have to admit-to having to google what an eider duck is. They ain’t in these parts.
Recipe: equals parts of cognac/brandy, grand marnie/orange liqueur, kirschwasser/cherry brandy, and lemon juice/lemon juice. 3/4 oz of each per cocktail). Brad

slammer - Posted - 12/07/2025:  05:39:58

Sounds good……….who’s ready to get Duckie with me???
Slammer!!!

steve davis - Posted - 12/07/2025:  06:44:53

I choose a fir near the house and throw some tinsel on it.

Some years I leave it as is.

rinemb - Posted - 12/07/2025:  09:27:44

quote:

---

Originally posted by slammer

Sounds good……….who’s ready to get Duckie with me???

Slammer!!!

---

If I had planned ahead I could have bought a bag of mini rubber duckies to float on the cocktail.  Brad

rinemb - Posted - 12/07/2025:  09:34:07

quote:

---

Originally posted by steve davis

I choose a fir near the house and throw some tinsel on it.



Some years I leave it as is.

---

I used to work in a portion of south central Kansas in very rough carved up red hill country.  With a lot of dense woods and canyons.  And near water, cedar trees abound.  I would cut a 6-ish foot cedar to set up in our elderly baby sitter's  home.  She grew up in that area and they always had cedar Christmas trees, free, and within walking distance. She would cry when I set it up, and talk about her childhood.  Brad

pinenut - Posted - 12/07/2025:  09:55:22

We put ours up last night.  It's a sweet Charlie Brown Doug fir that was growing in the wrong place. 

The cats are thrilled and 'worshiped' it all night.   

Edited by - pinenut on 12/07/2025 09:57:32

Owen - Posted - 12/07/2025:  09:58:21

Rubber duckies you say?? 

I assume these are edible and IF marshmallow floats, yer good to go: 

rinemb - Posted - 12/07/2025:  12:24:30

I know just where go for those! Thx
That is, if I ever do duckie drinks again. Though, the eider duck drink tasted very good. Brad

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 12/07/2025:  13:07:10

Every year since I lost the artificial vs. real debate, I have dutifully hauled the plastic monstrosity in from the garage on the day after Thanksgiving. I assemble the segments, fold down the branches, and get the lights working. My wife, daughter and grand kids do the rest.



It's the time of year when I go from room to room humming or singing my own little Christmas carol:



Shining plastic Christmas tree

You make me feel so Christmas-y

All beautiful and evergreen

And made of polyethylene



Shining plastic Christmas bough

The children gather round you now

Singing songs of Christmas glee

Around the plastic Christmas tree



Glowing plastic Christmas pine

The scent from you is so divine

It came here from a foriegn shore

A spray can from the hardware store



Shining plastic Christmas tree

I hope some day that you will be

Among your poor discarded kin

Outside in the recycling bin



MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Edited by - Jon Borcherding on 12/07/2025 13:07:47

Owen - Posted - 12/07/2025:  13:22:52

You should* scout around Jon.... our plastic monstrosity looks quite decent.

[She/we got it at Home Depot in Lloydminster SK/AB  4ish years back ... I doubt they have any left.]

* I typically shy away from giving "you should" advice, but once in  a while I make an exception. 

Edited by - Owen on 12/07/2025 13:26:02

Buddur - Posted - 12/08/2025:  05:43:29

Boys and I setup the Christmas tree and decorated it yesterday. The string of lights consist of 3 sets to go around the tree from top to bottom. This morning I woke up to find the middle string died leaving only the top and bottom of the tree illuminated. Ugh!

Lizwadsworth65 - Posted - 12/08/2025:  06:27:15

Here's my plastic monstrosity, courtesy of Balsam Hill. I like that I can set it up unaided, and a live tree doesn't get killed (and die a slow painful death from lack of watering.) Decorated with lots of British Squishies, as I call them. The little tree in the foreground came from ebay.

 

slammer - Posted - 12/08/2025:  08:45:58

Our small tree that is in our dining room right now, we keep up year round and Mrs. Slammer changes the lights for the different seasons or holidays!!!
I tell her ……..having her around is like having Christmas every day.
She says……….Thanks Pinocchio
Slammer!!!

Jon Borcherding - Posted - 12/08/2025:  09:11:26

quote:

---

Originally posted by Owen

You should* scout around Jon.... our plastic monstrosity looks quite decent.

[She/we got it at Home Depot in Lloydminster SK/AB  4ish years back ... I doubt they have any left.]

* I typically shy away from giving "you should" advice, but once in  a while I make an exception. 

---

I will never feel the same about a plastic tree.  I have too many childhood memories of dragging real trees through the woods with my Dad and siblings.  I just can't.  

Then there were the crazy younger years when I competed with friends to see who could steal the best tree growing on the state highway median.  You know... dressed in camo, crawling in the dark night, commando style, hatchet in hand, through the scotch broom to find the perfect little fir while cars whizzed by, their occupants oblivious to the egregious crime taking place only a few yards away. 

It was important to whack the tree down quickly and get it to the waiting pickup before attracting the attention of the local law.  Sometimes the "perfect" tree was not so perfect when viewed in daylight with sober eyes. 

Try that with your plastic tree!

DISCLAIMER:  The preceding story above may or may not be true.  It was provided solely for your entertainment.  The author takes no responsibility for copy-cats or other emulations of illegal or anti-social behavior.

steve davis - Posted - 12/08/2025:  11:18:44

My Dad and many of my cousins,aunts and uncles made up 100 dozen fir wreaths and a few dozen fir trees every November for delivery to a big florist in Reading,Mass.



Old Willys eep with a trailer in the woods between here and Friendship,Maine.



Nanny would dye a bunch of crocous bags red and we'd fill the bags with snapped off fir bought which the jeep would pick up as they were filled.



Popular wreath-making tables were old ironing boards.

Edited by - steve davis on 12/08/2025 11:20:07

Elmo_Smiley - Posted - 12/09/2025:  10:53:15

Right after Thanksgiving. My girlfriend of 15+ years (its a money/insurance management thing) does all the decorating and most of the gardening. In the spring I till. Then she's the garden boss. For Christmas, I have an artificial pre-lit green, an artificial non lit green, an artificial green with white snow tips, and an all white pre-lit. She chose the all white this year. So I get out the box from storage, and the big container of Christmas decorations. That's it. My work is done until it's time to put the boxes back up. The decorations are a lifetime collection, from my daughter and grandkids. Some are their happy meal toys with an eyelet screw inserted in the top. It's really a box of memories. My favorite part, most of these trees were donated by those who used them once or twice, so there is no cost, as long as there's no emergency room visit for my annual moving of the boxes. I should say, she's Filipina. And to shorten the season is interesting; You see, their Christmas starts over there in September.

STUD figmo Al - Posted - 12/09/2025:  12:30:08

:0)
Neibour kid did this one...
I...Like it meself...

 

rinemb - Posted - 12/10/2025:  03:56:22

Liz, that tree looks good.

Lizwadsworth65 - Posted - 12/10/2025:  04:18:24

Thanks!

STUD figmo Al - Posted - 12/10/2025:  04:39:19

quote:

---

Originally posted by rinemb

Liz, that tree looks good.

---

Well Brad...

You just made Her day... :0)

N...mine...

Betta... ;0)

1935tb-11 - Posted - 12/10/2025:  08:19:30

we are down to just a 3 ft table top tree. with a moravion star on the porch. and a few decorations inside .......

rinemb - Posted - 12/10/2025:  12:29:45

As Marilyn's mother got too old to put up a big tree, and Hallmark had just begun marketing miniature ornaments and miniature trees, Marilyn fixed her up with a high quality artificial tree they also marketed (about 18" tall). Then bought her a dozen or so of the tiny ornaments. Each year buying her a few more. Then together sitting at the table both of them would decorate that tree, and each year take all the little ornaments back off and into their original little boxes. The decorated tree served as a center piece on her moms dining room table through the season. Brad