That is the question.
At the beginning of the month I mentioned that, although I’d love to have a Christmas tree, I didn’t think it was a good idea this year with my little vacuum of a one-year-old combing the floor for scraps and bound to find the pine needles. Instead, I had a very nice image of a make-shift tree I’d found perusing the ever intriguing world of Pinterest.
But….
I caved. Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas without an honest-to-goodness tree in my house. At the beginning of my cave-age I thought “Oh, I could just get a little tree and put it up on a shelf.” This progressed to “Well, maybe I’ll get a small tree that I can put a baby-fence around to keep little Z from getting too close.”
So I headed on down to the local tree farm at the other end of our little island (all the way down in Fulford, which is a whole 20-30 minute drive – too much for most island-folk to embark on, apparently).
This tree farm is just the bees knees. I find it adorably quaint, with it’s various trees planted in lovely rows, and the owner’s house nestled nicely among the rolling hills leading down to the herd of sheep, roaming their pasture. The animals bleating their sheepy noises were fascinating to my tag-along babe who’d never heard a real sheep noise before.
Much to the tune of Salt Spring’s welcoming, caring way of life, the entrance to the tree farm included instructions for picking your tree, as well as a message instructing visitors to grab a warm cup of cider from the thermos and a home-baked cookie from the tin. The cider seemed a little too much for me to handle while trying to find a tree and juggle a wiggle-worm child, but could I pass up a cookie? Never.
Being that this was an axe-less and baby-ful endeavor, I chose a pre-cut tree. Perhaps a little larger than I had originally intended, but by the time I got there I just couldn’t bear to leave with a tiny tree. I hauled this steal of a deal ($10!), average-sized evergreen into the back of the truck and headed back home.
Once the tree was trimmed and set up, I realized there was no way the fence I had imagined would guard the tree from little hands would never encompass it. Oh well. Z’s been pretty great around it so far anyways. I’ll keep an eye, but I think we’ll get along just fine the way it is.
Decorated with lights and ornaments, mostly gifted to me from preschool Christmases past, our tree stands proudly in our living room, bringing the feeling the Christmas into our home. How did I ever think I could go a whole season without a tree??
4 thoughts on “To Tree, or Not to Tree?”
It looks lovely! I’m always worried that my kids will pull the tree down so we have a little eye screw hook thing in the wall behind it and some string wrapped around the core of the tree. Also, that tree farms looks so so sweet!
I’m a bit nervous of it being pulled, too. She hasn’t tried yet, but you never know. A little fishing line wouldn’t hurt!
I can’t wait to get our tree this week. It’s my absolute favourite thing about the holidays, a real tree, decorated with love. Just keep a watchful eye, and you can always ” Oh Oh” her if she gets too close. Also for years we had little stuffed animals and non breakable ornaments on the bottom of the tree that were just for the kids, they loved it and it didn’t pose any danger as to the tree falling.
Yes! I did put some of our “safe” and unbreakable decorations at the bottom for her to check out, but she hasn’t really even gotten into them yet. Pretty impressed thus far! I just couldn’t do it without the tree. It smells sooo good and Christmassy in here now!