Preparing for Christmas

A Chicago Tribune story this week declared that "Christmas tree buying is moving online."  They reported that Target stores are now selling freshly-cut Christmas trees:

Target said it is working with a grower in North Carolina, where trees are cut and shipped within 24 hours... "If someone says they want a 6- or 7-foot tree, I go out that evening and find it, and Federal Express picks it up the next morning," Whorton said. "We treat it special. Usually that time of year, we're able to scoop some snow into the bag... People tell us they never knew you could get a tree that fresh."

We wanted to splurge this year for a "biggest-ever" Christmas tree.  Out of curiosity I checked the Target website; for a 7.5 - 8 foot tree, they were asking $140.  Way too much.  So we headed out to a local tree farm to cut our own.

We visited Hann's Christmas Farm in Oregon, Wisconsin; I'm delighted to give them a free plug here on the blog because the people are exceptionally helpful and the service is excellent.  With several inches of snow in the forecast, we went last week while the ground was still bare.

Different areas of the farm are planted with trees of different types and of different ages, so you take your saw and seek out your perfect tree.  We walked into the Fraser fir section and found (as we expected) that the best proximal trees have been harvested in previous years, and that as you get further away from the parking area and barn, the selection improves.  After about 20 minutes we found one we liked, started to cut it down, and ran into our only glitch of the day: the saw from the farm rack (left) was gummed with pine pitch and froze after less than an inch into the cut.  My wife volunteered to trudge the quarter mile to the barn and back to get a fresh saw, which thankfully cut through the trunk like a hot knife through butter.

Then we had to face the task of hauling it back.  Here a word of advice to (other) newbies:  big Christmas trees are surprisingly heavy.  When we got it back to the barn, the staff put it in a "shaker" that dislodged all the extraneous material and critters, then baled it with twine, and helped us load it onto the car roof and tie it down.

We wound up with an eight-and-a-half foot Fraser fir for $55.  I don't know what you pay in your part of the country, but around here that's a great bargain.  It's been sitting in a bucket of water in the garage for several days, and will come into the house this afternoon.  Judging by how little water it has taken up during this time, I am certain it will be the freshest tree we've ever had; we should be able to keep it up until New Year's without any significant needle drop.

I didn't want to be encumbered with a camera during this trip, so the top two and upper side photos are from the farm's website.