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A Very Special Christmas Tree

By Pat Racimora on December 7, 2009 at 10:00 PM in Current Affairs

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This is a drawing of my 2004 Christmas tree.

It was short–only 31 inches.

It was cheap– $19.95 plus tax.

So, what’s so very, very special about this stubby little guy?

Well, two weeks later it was not a dried out brown skeleton, shrunken and shedding its needles while being dragged to the trash bin.

Instead, here it is 5 years later, healthy and magnificent at 15 feet tall.

treephoto

Please consider buying a live tree (appropriate type for your climate) for this holiday. Even if you don’t have a place for it afterwards, someone surely does.

The best friend on Earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources of the Earth.

– Frank Lloyd Wright

  • http://www.althing.com/governuts West Virginia

    Thank you for that post, Pat. Here are some quotes that, if you did not know were uttered a hundred years ago, you would find fitting today.

    “Conservation is the foresighted utilization, preservation and/or renewal of forests, waters, lands and minerals, for the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time.”

    “The vast possibilities of our great future will become realities only if we make ourselves responsible for that future.”

    “Conservation is the application of common sense to the common problems for the common good.”

    “In the old world that is passing, in the new world that is coming, national efficiency has been and will be a controlling factor in national safety and welfare”

    “Unless we practice conservation, those who come after us will have to pay the price of misery, degradation, and failure for the progress and prosperity of our day.”

    Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865 – October 4, 1946) was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service (1905–1910)

    Just because some global warming data got tossed out like last year’s Christmas tree does not mean everything else we hold dear should also be discarded or forgotten. – Me.

    • Pat Racimora

      Thanks for these wonderful quotes. A hundred years ago–they “got it” even back then!

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTmLKUT817Y Eldear Jhane

    You could easily have posted this charming story without asking others to follow along. People can figure that out for themselves without being prodded along. And anyone who is likely to do it, doesn’t need to be asked…just tell your story without imposing your suggestions for what others should do….your story will be all the more powerful for it.

    • http://www.althing.com/governuts West Virginia

      I beg to differ with you. An old wise man once told me that you never get a dance if you don’t ask. Sometimes we are so busy thinking of other things that a little prodding is just what it takes to focus our attention in the right direction. Just my two cents on your two cents.

    • Pat Racimora

      EJ–I like it the way it is. Why not promote a good idea?

      • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTmLKUT817Y Eldear Jhane

        because people don’t need to be told what to do.

        • Tricia

          What about “please consider” is telling people what to actually go out and do?

    • Stan Davis

      Ebenezer Scrooge would be so proud!

      Stan Davis
      Lakeoowd, CO

    • Portia Elizabeth

      EJ — and just how is scolding for a good deed helpful?

      Grinch much?

    • creeper

      Not so, Eldear Jhane. I paid $30 for a cut white pine yesterday. Never even thought of buying a live tree. If I’d seen this first, Pat’s gentle nudge would have prompted me to look into it.

      Good post, Pat.

  • Anna

    Black Austrian pines work very well.

  • oowawa

    Oh Pat–you forgot one of the most important considerations: just look at all the carbon dioxide emissions that healthy tree is inhaling every day! (And that’s opposed to taking a CO2 breathing tree out of circulation when you cut it down.)

    You should get cap-and-trade points for the live tree!

    • felizarte

      just look at all the carbon dioxide emissions that healthy tree is inhaling every day! (And that’s opposed to taking a CO2 breathing tree out of circulation when you cut it down.)

      Thanks for bringing this point up, OOWW; the Copenhagen crowd are trying to scare people of the CO2 build up without suggesting reforestation and planting more trees to help consume the CO2. Of course man is to blame, for cutting more trees than they plant. A tree should be planted for every child born into this world.

      • felizarte

        and a tree as well for every /energy fuel-consuming contraption manufacctured.

      • felizarte

        and a tree as well for every energy/ fuel-consuming contraption manufactured.

  • FLDemFem

    We always had live trees when I was a kid. In fact, my grandparents also had live trees. My grandfather was well-known for his gardening, and at their house there were huge pines that had been the Christmas trees when my mother and aunt were children. They were huge and very climbable. And very sappy too. When my sister and I came home from overseas a year ahead of my parents to go to school, it was our first Christmas without our parents. So my grandparents got each of us a tree, BIG ones. They were at each end of the living room, fully decorated. Each of us had our own personal glass ball ornament with our name on it in glitter. That’s how we knew whose tree was whose. And after Christmas, well, in the spring, the trees were planted on the lawn next to the pool. The last time I saw them, they were over 40 feet tall. Due to health considerations, ie I can’t plant them afterwards, I am now using an artificial tree.

  • Patrick Henry

    Nice Toon Pat..Great story too..and wonderful suggestion..your tree is beautiful..

    yes..trees`are the Earths lungs.and I LOVE them..

    • http://www.MySpace.com/dianabrodie Brodie

      Thanks for the reminder, Pat! I appreciate it & so do the trees. I wrote a song called “The Lungs of the World” which is on the player on my MySpace page. Check it out.

      • Tricia

        URL please????

  • Mandelay

    O Christmas Tree
    O Christmas Tree
    How Lovely Are Your Branches!

  • robert

    You are so right. Planting a tree every five years might make up for a lifetime’s consumption of paper products.

    • Pat Racimora

      I have planted one every year for many years.

      Don’t get me started on paper!

      • Patrick Henry

        My Favorite Tree Drive is down the Beautiful Oregon Coast and into the Giant Redwood forest..and then just spending time with the trees..Wonderful..

        • TeakWoodKite

          US 101 Honeydew exit , Rockerfeller Grove.

    • Portia Elizabeth

      Robert — coal in your stocking for that snark.

  • samb

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Hv9YmhGpw

    It seem to fit , I’m kid at heart …… Oh well.

  • Diana L. C.

    Pat,

    I think it’s marvelous that you have that wonderful CHRISTmas tree in your yard! I won’t follow your suggestion, however, as our large yard is very full of trees right now. It’s hard to mow around them.

    I am one of those people who bought a fake tree over a decade ago and put it up every year. Some close friends had a real tree one year. Somehow it caught fire and their their dining room where they had moved furniture to set up the tree and their kitchen were completely destroyed. It frightened me, so I never used a real tree again. That was at the time when it was hard to find anything but cut real trees.

    I never liked the idea of “killing” trees to set one up in the house anyway. But I would also certainly encourage anyone who wants a real Christmas tree to buy one he or she can then actually plant.

    • Smart Blonde

      we used to say we’d never have a fake tree.
      that was before the year that we had to throw out not one but two trees that got dangerously dry before Christmas. we’d kept them supplied with water as usual but they became fire hazards anyway. so off we went to buy a fake tree and we’ve never looked back. it’s easy enough to go out and cut some evergreen branches for the real Christmas tree smell. planting live trees is certainly a good thing to do if you’re able, though.

  • TeakWoodKite

    Neat Pat. After years of buy real trees we got a fake tree. I used to think that they were tacky but as it worked out, I never have to buy one again. We even restrung the tree with LED lights.

  • Joanie in Brooklyn

    We’ve always had a fake tree because I could never understand cutting down a perfectly good tree just to put it on display for 2 weeks or so then throw it away; then do the same thing again the following year. I’ve always thought it ironic that in a society that has grown increasingly in love with everything contrived, the christmas tree is one of the few things we insist must be real. Enough of my rant.

    Someone has had the good sense to start a company that will bring you a live tree and pick it back up after the holidays. Saw that somewhere on the web. Sorry don’t have a link. But it’s a great idea for those who must have “the real thing”

  • Pingback: A Very Special Christmas Tree : NO QUARTER Tree Me

  • Sassy

    Pat, you did well!
    Several of my family members always plant their trees. They inherited the “green thumbs”…uh, not me!
    My decorations are centered around the Dickens Village series of Dept.56, and I no longer have a tree.
    My special Christmas treat is driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway and observing the beautiful trees!

  • tango

    What a beautiful tree! I have a fake tree for inside my house but like to buy a small live tree in a planter, attach a few red bows on it and leave it on my front porch to welcome visitors. Then after the holidays have passed, I take it out to my farm and plant it in the woods. I think that’s the best of both worlds. A fake tree for safety and ease, a real tree for the beauty but without the waste of cutting one down.

  • Sassy

    My comment is under the pine needles!
    Merry Christmas to you and yours Pat!

  • carros

    My family did this for years (until my dad dropped one on his toe and broke it). The funny thing, one night about 10 years ago, I was driving up my parent’s driveway and stopped the car because something just didn’t seem right. Sure enough, someone had come along and cut off the top half of one of them!

  • Portia Elizabeth

    Pat — your tree and your story are beautiful reminders that life endures.

    And for all the snarkers out there I will paraphrase Shakespeare:

    Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness

    .

  • JohnnyB

    Pat: Thanks for the reminder that a cut christmas tree is a dead christmas tree. Giving the tree to your City Hall for them to plant in the most appropriate place (in a city park?) is also a good idea as these trees grow big and if you don’t have a big yard, the tree will become too big for you.

    Good for you Pat. May we all find Peace this coming year.

  • Rich

    I feel that this cartoon is really about a very serious subject. For me this cartoon represents the difference between what people say and what they do.

    For example, what would happen if everyone who is interested in stopping global warming and is interested in going green, would just say NO to killing a tree just for the purpose of taking it into ones home so that we could decorate it and watch it die, in the name of celebrating the birth of Christ. Especially since it is my understanding that the Christmas tree actually has nothing to do with Jesus and his life, but is actually a Pagan celebration.

    Better yet, what if instead of killing a tree the tradition would be to plant a tree in one’s own yard or in a wilderness or in a rain forest? Talk about something we all can do regardless if whether or not we believe in Jesus or even in God.

    Rich

  • hc123

    The tree is lovely!

    We use a potted Norfolk Pine chez moi. It started off about a foot high, a sad little left over plant covered in glitter at the local grocery.

    It is now 5 feet tall, happily living on my deck in Summer, wintering in the livingroom.

    http://www.evergrowing.com/tips/araucaria.htm

    Highly recommend them.

  • Tricia

    One doesn’t even have to stick to a “traditional” tree. A freind buys small fruit bearing trees. This year his Meyers lemon tree had lemons on it,looking like yellow Christmas balls. Added a few other colors and it is as cute as can be. Very festive.