As I sit here on occasion of our first snow with a fire in my fireplace (note to self: remember existence of such when comparing rents to Manhattan) and a mug of hot chocolate in hand, I find myself contemplating when a sane person puts up a Christmas tree. One of my co-workers put hers up before Thanksgiving. My family traditionally put ours up on my birthday, two weeks from tomorrow.
I'm probably doing precisely what I did last year. I want a real tree but Crip Boy clearly isn't throwiing one over his shoulder anytime soon. Instead, I'll probably go to a nursery nearby that chops the tops off of trees that are disfigured in some way near the bottom. You end up with a little Charlie Brown tree that was salvaged from an ugly duckling. Seems like a festive approach.
Problem is, though, that I have no idea how long a "real" tree will stay alive. Last year I made a mad dash when I realized that my parents were coming to visit. It lasted the week just fine... Any ideas?
Posted by mikewolf at December 02, 2003 07:35 PMA real tree can last a long time if you water it every day but if you have a very warm house they dry out fast. Also the kind of tree makes a difference. The fur trees retain there needles better and therefore last longer with less mess. I like the Fraser furs best. They smell great but they are a sappy tree so you have to water them a lot. I just learned this week that if you mist your tree it will last even longer but that just dosn't seem like a good idea to spray water on a tree with electric lights on it. I just can't bring my self to do that!! We got our tree last Saturday, and at almost 12 feet tall I could water it almost twice a day, it drinks about a gallon of water a day.
Posted by: Christy on December 3, 2003 07:50 AMOkay, 12 feet tall is just crazy. Did you make Brad carry that in? I would have paid to see that.
Oh, and as a vegetarian, I don't think I'd be comfortable with a "fur" tree :-)
Posted by: mrw on December 3, 2003 02:14 PMWas it a balmy snow?
Posted by: Cassie on December 3, 2003 04:26 PMmrw says:
>and as a vegetarian, I don't think I'd be comfortable with a "fur" tree :-)
Not only did Brad have to cary it in, he had to cut it down. I knew we were in trouble when saw in hand he told me that he couldn't cut it any more and then proceded to push it over. So the bottom of the trunk was a mess and had to be trimed, good thing the tree farm is happly does this for you with chain saws. The best part was when we got home. You see our new house has a loft area, a great place for a tree but the sliders are on the other side of the house from the drive way. I asked him how he was going to get this tree over the 6 ft fence and he told me that he was going to throw it over!! Ok just throw it over? This tree had to way almost 200 lbs!! It took Brad and 2 guys from the tree farm to put it on top of the Jeep and he (by himself) is going to heave this tree over a 6ft fence? He gets it like 2 feet off the ground and starts yelling for me to open the side door in the garage. So we get this thing in the house and cut the twine loose and every thing is great except that it is now raining in our house. You see the day before we went and got this tree it snowed like 4 ins. Not a lot of snow but it was that heavy wet snow that makes ice and this tree was crusted with ice chunks. As the ice melted off this tree it was dripping off the tree at a rate almost exactly like rain.
Yes Mike you should have seen it!!!
Maybe next year I will lobby for a 15 ft tree and bring a video camera with me!!
I am lobbing for a four foot fake tree.
Posted by: Brad on December 8, 2003 09:44 AM