Old Fools Journal: Merry Xmas Shopping Season and to all a good night.

This tree was made by SWMBO(she who must be obeyed) in our palapa in Loreto, BCS. It was our first Christmas there and we were really still camping out.
SHE said "I'm having a tree" and so she did.


We have not brought a tree into the house to die in over 20 winter solstices now. It's not that we have anything against it but It just seems pointless. We spend so much time worrying about the health of our trees that I just can't bring myself to kill one. Even the ones that are a nuisance.

We are not Christians, Jews or any other dogma that gives religious significance to winter solstice. We do believe in the spirit of Christmas and in our world he wears the jolly red face of Santa Clause. He can wear any face you wish to see him in. He is always a he.
<1998
artificial

I have had many trees over the years, real cut trees, live in a pot and artificial. I no longer need to kill a tree for the holidays. But the spirit of the tree is not something I wish to live without.

36 years ago I lived on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada's on 77 acres in a luxurious house situated at the end of a ⅓ mile private drive way. The nearest town was Fiddletown at 3.5 miles. The driveway had a 12% grade in the middle. This property was filled with trees and the surrounding properties were as well. For our first Christmas there we went out into the woods with the bow saw and an axe. Every woodsman carries an axe even if you don't plan to use it. I mean carrying a bow saw over your shoulder just doesn't present the strong image of woodsman. It's just for show, the saw carried by the girls was used to cut the tree.

We went to a grove of crowded fir trees that I had spotted during warmer weather. In that grove we found a twin tree about 6 or 7 eight feet tall. They were perfectly straight and well filled out. I cut one of the trees which gave us a perfect tree that was flat on one side. All part of the plan. The tree that we left thanked us in the following years by filling in and looking magnificent for the developer with the bulldozer that mowed it down some years later.

When backed with the flat side against a wall that tree, when decorated, was beautiful. I have lost all the pictures of that experience but even though the picture has dimmed I can still see those pictures on the video screen in my head. I don't look in that box often because of certain regrets.

Our tree this year is an artificial tree that was abandoned at our house 15 years ago by wasteful people. It was a good quality imitation tree and with minor repairs I hope to make it last until I no longer celebrate the season. Every year I ask it to convey to the tree gods my regret for having wasted trees in an effort to burn the house down at Christmas. I don't know if it talks to real trees or not but being such a good replication must give it some sort of special dispensation.
Jolly Old Saint Nickolas a man after my own heart