Christmas Tree Hunting

By Glynna

            Every year since I can remember, when the first snow would fall I knew that in a couple weeks my mom, dad, and three brothers would be trudging through the snow looking for the perfect Christmas tree to display in our home.  My dad would buy a wood permit and we would cut down our own Christmas tree.  The day after thanksgiving was always the day we went hunting for our Christmas tree.  I’m not sure if my parents planned this on purpose due the large amounts of food we ate Thanksgiving Day, but I always remember my pants being a little snug the day after Thanksgiving.  Before we left our home we always made sure to bundle up really warm by wearing many layers of clothing.  My brothers and I all had snow suits each one a different color.  When I think of my brothers and I wearing our snow suits it makes me laugh as it makes me think of the movie The Christmas Story and how Alfie’s little brother couldn’t put his arms down due to his mom making him wear so much clothing to keep warm under his snow suit.  My brothers and I probably looked exactly like him with our arms sticking straight out to our sides. 

Two was the magic number that day as we would put on sweat pants and a pair of jeans, a shirt and a sweater, two pairs of socks and two pairs of gloves. My mom showed us a trick to keeping our socks dry while out playing in the snow.  She taught us to put plastic bags over our socks and tie it tight before we put on our boots, because of this I don’t ever remember having cold, wet feet as a child.

            We would all hop into our van and the hunt would begin.  Looking out the window we would yell and point, “Dad, there’s one!”  My dad ignored the yells coming from the back of the van and continued to take us farther down the road.  As our van slowly slid to a halt we all jumped or more like rolled out and began our Christmas tree hunt.  We would scan the area looking and trying to decide which way to go first.  Trudging through the snow we would size up each pine tree we came upon and make a mental note of the ones we liked best.  After about an hour of walking and looking we would decide which of the best ones would be our Christmas tree. My dad always remembered where the one we liked best was.  If it depended on me to remember, we would never get home.  Once we got to the tree, my dad would start cutting at the trunk and we would take turns helping my dad saw away at the trunk of the tree.  Once we were half way sawing through the trunk, my dad would give it a push and it would fall to the ground. “Timber” my brothers and I would yell.  We would all evenly distribute ourselves around the tree and grab a branch and haul it back to the van.  Once we got back to the van, my dad would tied our Christmas tree to the top of the van, something always seen in the movies. 

            Once we got home we would help dad pull it off the top of the van.  My dad would trim the lowest branches and find a bucket and fill it with rocks to hold the tree in place.  We would haul it inside and find the perfect spot for it.  Now was the difficult part of trying to fix the rocks in the bucket so the tree wouldn’t lean to one side.  This always brought back memories of some of the trees we had in previous years.  We had the tree that was so tall that the tip of the tree bent at the ceiling and the tree that was so wide that it consumed most of our living room.  I noticed as each year passed and we got older our Christmas trees started looking nicer. 

            My favorite part of putting up the Christmas tree is decorating it.  My brothers got bored decorating pretty fast, so it was always something my mother and I would finish together.  I cherished those times I had with my mother as she would tell me where and when each ornament came from as I pulled them out of the boxes and tin cans.  After we finished decorating the tree we would sit and admire it before we all headed to bed.  Christmas tree hunting was a very exhausting day for everyone, yet it is a day that I always looked forward to and a day I will always remember.