by El Zorro Viejo (aka; Jim)

Our tree farm Christmas tree place just outside of Flemington has closed shop this year. We got a flyer in the mail this week breaking the bad news. They did give us the name of another tree farm over near Whitehouse Station, but I don't think it will be the same. Tree farms have been disappearing from this part of New Jersey for the past twenty years or so. The problem is that tree farming is no longer a viable economic use of the land. Sure, you can make your 10 grand selling trees, but then you could sell off your 20 acres at 250K an acre (mol) to a developer. At that point it becomes academic.

So, at some point in the coming week the granddaughter and I will troodle off to Whitehouse Station to look at fresh Christmas Trees. I will never, never stoop to buying something artificial. There is an aroma and an ambiance that a live (or recently deceased) tree provides that an artificial tree will never come close to matching.

When I lived in Maine, I used go strap on the snowshoes and hike out into the forest to find "the tree." I assume that if the person/corporation/state who owned the land had come across me doing this, I might have found myself in some hot water. However, I did not poach tree farms so I have to assume that the owners of the land, be they state or private entity, would not be extremely put out. Of course, I could have been very wrong. That experience, which lasted most of the 70s, which means most of my young adulthood, has pretty well fixed in me the need for a real tree at Christmas/winter solstice. Plastic and aluminum are just not the same, and will never match what God/nature provides for us. I do feel sorry for those trees which come out of the huge tree farms. There is not the same connection one gets when one cuts down his/her own tree. I think all those who go the plastic or aluminum route should be pitied since they are missing the true experience of a solstice tree.

And that brings up that point. The decorated tree actually has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with the winter solstice. I think it is really nice that we can incorporate what is essentially a Druidic totem into a Christian celebration, but we need to remember that this is really what the tree stands for. It is an affirmation of life at the point of time when the sun is at its lowest ebb in the Northern Hemisphere. The colored lights and the decorations are meant to remind us that the annual rebirth is, figuratively, just around the corner. I do love the winter lights and decorations because I do look forward to the forsythia in the early spring.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. ©El Zorro Viejo 2002-2005