20 October 2005

That Plastic World We [Have to] Live In

While searching for places that sell artificial Christmas trees in the area, I found a link to this story, "Real" Christmas Trees a Falling Trend , about Christmas tree growers' scorn for artificial ones and their purchasers.

I love real trees. I used to even love the wonderfully lopsided trees we got in the later 50's and early 60's, before they started to routinely "shave" firs and spruces to get them into that perfect cone shape. It was always a challenge to fit the worst bare spot up against the wall or in front of the window where it would be noticed less and artfully drape lesser bare spots with extra ornaments and a large quantity of silver icicles (forever known, as in many other homes, as "tinsel").

My folks quit getting a real tree when I was about eight or nine, citing the exorbitant prices of fresh ones at that time. What they didn't tell me was that it was also because of my allergy.

I realized this the one year we had a real tree, provided by some friends after we had a run of bad luck. It was a beautiful frasier fir and when James walked into the house he took a deep breath and sighed, "Now that smells like Christmas."

Three hours after the tree entered our apartment, my nose swelled up and remained that way for the next two and a half weeks. Eventually I started coughing and ended up with bronchitis.

So when the tree growers complain that artificial trees are "sucking the spirit out of Christmas" and dismiss all buyers of such with distaste, they ought to remember that it's better to have a fake tree than sit wheezing in the doctor's office waiting to be prescribed $$$ worth of medicine.

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