Christmas Trees
When it comes to Christmas trees, Rebecca and I don’t skimp. By some strange coincidence, we both spent our childhoods in houses with vaulted ceilings. And with a ceiling like that, you just have to have a tree that fills the space. The result is that we both grew up with Christmas trees that regularly measured over twenty feet tall.
Now, as adults, we’ve carried on the tradition. Except we’ve done even better.
Our Christmas tree stands over forty feet tall. You read that right. Over forty feet tall. (That’s about 13 meters for the majority of the world’s readers).
And we don’t bother with regular ornaments. We go state-of-the-art. We have ornaments that actually move about on the tree, always forming different shapes and patterns. And they come in all manner of hues (but especially bright red, to fit in with the red-and-green Christmas colors).
Then there are the sparkles. We have over 250,000 sparkle ornaments on the tree, each one reflecting light like a diamond.
And did I mention that we don’t just have one of these trees? That would never do. Nope. We have six. Six in a row.
Now, 250,000 sparkle ornaments and a whole mess of magical moving ornaments. That seems like a little work, doesn’t it? So, being the fabulously wealthy people that we are, we refuse to do any of the work, but insist that the trees are prepared for us. That way we can simply look and enjoy.
When friends come over, they often spend quite a bit of time just admiring our Christmas trees. They’re quite lovely, after all. In fact, to be perfectly honest (and we say this with all modesty), we have the prettiest Christmas trees of anyone we know.
You’re probably on to me by now. Because our Christmas trees are old fir trees that grow in our side-yard. The moving ornaments are birds (especially cardinals, of which we have 9 pairs), and the sparkles are frozen droplets of ice.
We choose not to have one in the house because the tradition has always made us a bit sad. We’re chopping down enough trees to try to provide for all the paper and wood our culture consumes on a daily basis. The whole ‘kill a tree and then dress it up splendidly’ is a little morbid, after all (a bit like what we do with our food).
If you do choose to get a tree, there are many options besides just throwing it away when you’re done. There are some wonderful recycling programs available (at least in some areas), which use the trees to provide underwater habitats for fish or use the wood for other purposes. At the very least, you can put the tree outside when you’re finished with it and hang treats on it for the birds.
Here’s another option. A new tradition, if you will. Plan ahead and purchase a small, living evergreen in a pot. Dress it up for Christmas, and then, in the spring, plant it someplace that looks like a tree would be welcome. That way, you can not only have your Christmas tree, but you can add a tree to the world, instead of taking one away.
We often remember to express gratitude during the holidays. We express it to our loved ones, our pets, and to the world in general by giving to charities. But in all this gratitude, plants are often forgotten.
Plants give us so much. They are also among the most silent of the earth’s living creatures. Being unlike us in so many ways, few humans ever take the time to consider them as living beings. We kill them and eat them and use them, usually without a second thought.
Let us not forget that plants are also alive, and that our very existence on this planet depends on the air, food, and shelter that they give us. We don’t need to stop using them, but perhaps we can give them just a little more of our respect and gratitude.
Wishing a very Happy Holiday to all of the world’s creatures,
Kenton Whitman
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