Cutting Down Trees!

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Last weekend, Jill and I headed to Tonry Christmas Tree Farm to cut down the Christmas Tree that we had recently tagged. It was a Fraser Fir and perfectly shaped, in our humble opinion. It had plenty of room between each branch, which is what I like in a tree. It allows you to hang bulbs not only on the outside, but also the inside of the tree. I’m sure it looked a bit bare to most, but to us, we knew it would shape up to be the perfect tree!

I brought my own bow saw and it only took a few minutes to saw through the trunk. I forgot to yell timber and the tree literally almost fell on Jill while she was pulling the ribbon decorations off. Dragging it up to the netting station was the most laborious part of the day. I didn’t realize it when we tagged the tree…but it was at the bottom of a big hill! That tree was pretty heavy by the time I got it to the top.

Once home, we set it up and admired it for a bit. It really smelled great. My goal this year was to make a more “old time” or “traditional” tree. One that looked like it came from a few generations prior. I got this idea from my good friends, Tim and Robin, over at Appalachia & Beyond. They did this last year, and I thought it was a great idea…so I recruited Jill to help me do it to our tree this year.

To accomplish this, we did a few things. Jill and I stayed up a few late nights (watching Rescue Me on DVD…great show BTW) and strung popcorn and cranberries. We utilized all of our antique Christmas bulbs, which I have my Mom to thank for. She started collected them for me when I was just a kid and today, I have so many antique bulbs, we can’t even fit all of them on the tree. And to top it all off was the star. You see, when I was very young, my Dad brought me down cellar one Christmas season and said, “we’re going to make the star for the tree”! He pulled out an old cardboard box, drew a star and cut it out with scissors. He then proceeded to wrap it in tin foil, of all things. When he set the star up on the tree, I remember thinking that it was the biggest, shiniest tree top I had ever seen. He told me that they used the same kind of star when he was a kid as well. I’ve duplicated my father’s star and have topped our tree with it too.

I’m really happy with this tree. It is definitely my favorite Christmas Tree to date. It is the first tree that Jill and I (and Lylah) went out and walked around a field to pick out. We used to just stop on the side of the road and pick one quickly. I feel like we have more of a vested interest in this particular tree for that reason. This is also the first Christmas Tree that my beautiful daughter has been able to set her eyes on. She really loves looking at the bulbs and lights with curiosity. Most of all, I really love how we approached the decorations. I look at the tree everyday and it reminds me of simpler times. When people didn’t need to buy expensive decorations to make a wonderful tree and have a good Christmas…yes, that’s my favorite part! It’s the same feeling I get when I head north, to the mountains!