For those celebrating Noel, Yule or Christmas, the trimmed tree is considered an integral part of the celebration. I remember tromping through the snow to help choose and evergreen. My dad set it up on the three-legged stand with water trough. The family gathered to decorate it with treasured ornaments.
Often these trees end up in a landfill though environmentally friendly options exist including having a real tree recycled into mulch, buy a faux tree made of metal, plastic or man-made materials, going without a tree, substituting a facsimile wall hanging with a tree pattern or putting a living tree in a planter and then transplanting it later in the yard.
My honey and I chose a living tree this year because the branches will provide shelter for the winter birds in our yard. For our date, we went to choose the tree. Our options were fir, spruce, cedar, pine and sequoia. The choice depended on the destination. We finally settled on a spruce and we decided to not even set it up in the house for the holidays.
Just because tradition dictates putting gifts under the tree doesn’t mean either the gifts or the tree are absolutes. My honey thought the tree was enough of a gift because we would get joy from it all year. We’ll be able to watch our tree grow along with our relationship and we will enjoy the birds’ antics. The birds will celebrate the season in style because we also brought home twenty-five pounds of birdseed.
THE END
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