Sticker Shock at the Christmas Tree Lot

Looking for Just the Right Christmas Tree

I was looking for signs of Christmas in Paso Robles Saturday,  and I stopped at this Christmas tree lot across from Rabobank to look around and take pictures. For various reasons, we have not had a Christmas tree in over twenty years. When we did buy trees, we always bought real ones. It was fun to go to the lot and pick one out.

Christmas Tree Lot in Paso Robles

We had had a tree every year since we were married until the year our son, the lover of all things Christmas and chief tree decorator, died in an accident in August, 1991. There's never been much point to getting a tree since then. We always celebrate somewhere else now.

I remember seeing many varieties of pine and fir trees in those lots I used to visit, and some of the trees were flocked -- some even in colors other than white. I don't remember seeing trees in some of the shapes I saw today.

I  did see small living Christmas trees like this one. In fact, my mom bought one when she moved here twenty years ago. She planted it in the back yard. We finally had to remove it a few weeks ago. See the story about that below by clicking "One Way to Remove a Large Tree" in the related articles.

I had never seen any Christmas trees in tiers like the tall one on the right in the photo above. I didn't get a look at its price tag. I did see the price tag on the large tree in the middle of this photo, though. It is a handsome Noble Fir grown by Hopper Brothers in Woodburn, Oregon. Price? Only $93.99.

It is a beautiful tree, but I did get sticker shock looking at that tag after not pricing Christmas trees in over twenty years. Of course, there were smaller trees and trees not quite so "Noble" that were more affordable. For the first time in my life, though, I understand why some families do opt for artificial trees.

Grow Your Own Christmas Tree

The most economical way to get a real Christmas tree is to grow it yourself -- or get your tree on Christmas  Eve when it may be almost half price. 
You might try growing your own Christmas tree for next year.

One of the books recommended below explains how the growers do it. Lessons from a Christmas Tree Farm by Michael Kurtz, a pastor who grew Christmas trees for twenty years, is a devotional book that can be used for group study.  The picture book, Christmas Farm, is about a five-year-old-boy and a middle-aged woman who plant dozens of balsam seedlings, nurture them, and watch them grow up. And, of course, I've included in my suggestions a kit to help you grow your own living Christmas tree. It might also make a nice gift for someone with a green thumb.

Related articles

• One Way to Remove a Large Tree
• A Christmas Tree in Templeton Like No Other
• Looking at Deciduous Oak Trees in Winter
• X is for Xmas in Paso Robles

One Way to Remove a Large Tree

I mentioned a few posts back that we had a large pine tree about to fall. It seemed prudent to remove it before that happened. I will show you the entire tree again so that you can see the contrast between the tree in the ground and the tree on the ground. You can see how tall it is compared to the six-foot fence, and of course, it's already part of the way down.

There are many ways to get rid of an unwanted tree. We chose to hire a handyman. What that sometimes means is that a project may take longer than it might in the hands of a professional tree service. It didn't take two men working together long to get the tree cut down, but it's taken almost a week to get all the tree parts hauled away.

I want you to see how large the tree really is by showing you its parts. I guess I had expected the tree to be cut lumberjack style with cuts to the trunk and the tree falling whole. That isn't what happened. It was safer to remove the branches first to make the tree lighter. This photo shows most of the branches that were cut before the trunk.

This is a view from a different perspective. You can click this or any of these photos to enlarge them.

The men stacked some of the branches, though not as many, in the center of the yard, perhaps to make them easier to carry away.

To help you put the size of the branches into perspective, I lined up one of the smaller branches next to this twelve-foot ladder.

My mother planted this as a small Christmas tree. The rings on the stump indicate that was just about 20 years ago, which would have been her first Christmas here. Think about these photos if you ever decide to plant a living Christmas tree, and make sure you have enough room. Take into account that fact that surrounding trees will also grow larger, and that pine trees have shallow roots.

The stump was cut away to ground level a couple of days after the initial cut.

I'm  hoping you will be able to see a couple of the roots in this photo to the right. One of the roots is toward the right between some green leaves about 2/3 of the way down.  The roots are hard to see because they blend so well into the pine needles and shadows. You will have to  click and enlarge the photo to see them. If you follow the line of that root back past where some pine needles cover it, you will get a feel for how long it really is -- about eight feet. It heads back underground at a rosebush.

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