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O Christmas Tree

It was time for Christmas trees to be collected this week. I had heard that there was a day that they would be collected and assumed I would need to drag it out to the street, like we do in the U.S. A week or so after Christmas near church I saw piles of trees, but I thought, “Well, that’s in the city. The people that live in apartments need to bring theirs here.” I saw several piles around the city that day, and one on the way home from our tram to our house. That evening I asked my friend B what day we needed to take our trees out. She explained that from the 13th to the 20th or so, trees would be collected . . .from the pile I had seen walking home. So rather than dragging it to the street we would need to drag it oh, a half mile. Now, true, we could’ve put it in our car. But what do you picture when you see a month old Christmas tree in your car? A mess. So, after seeing the pile of trees grow and grow, and even seeing some trees being dragged down the street, the kids and I tried our hand at it.

I went to the shed to get a pair of work gloves and by the time I came out, Elisabeth and Henry had taken the tree from our patio to our gate--they had carried it. I was both impressed and encouraged about the trip ahead. It turned out to be a delightful romp down the street with the kids taking turns carrying the tip, while I carried the stump. Sometimes I thought I could do it easier on my own, so I asked them to drop it while I dragged it. But the truth was, they were really helping. After about fifteen minutes we were at the big pile of trees. The kids laughed and laughed at all those trees lying there. Henry was sad that they were going to take away the trees but I tried to explain about how they could chip it up into bits and that we would get a new one next year. That made him feel better.

Some of the trees had wax on them. Many people really do put candles on their trees and light them every night from Christmas Eve until January 6th, Three Kings Day (or Epiphany). My friend M had a bucket of water near her tree at all times, and each day had new candles on the tree. Keep in mind also that in the U.S. people are buying trees (if they buy fresh trees at all!) the day after Thanksgiving that often have been cut and shipped from far away. Here they buy trees much closer to Christmas (traditionally the 23rd or 24th) and they are more local. Our tree was the greenest we’ve ever had. It drank water for a month and the needles it dropped over the whole period would’ve fit in one hand. After seeing M’s tree with the candles I thought maybe we could try that next year . . .a tree with candles and a goose for Christmas dinner.




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Natalie said…
Good job to the tree draggers! :) We did have to put our formerly live and very dry tree in the car to take it to be "recycled" this year (not in The Woodlands). It was a big mess.
9:02 AM
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