Holiday Tree

Well, after over three hours, my tree is decorated. For the past seven years, we have picked our tree out from the Forestry Forum at Ohio State, which had trees for sale this last weekend. The trees are from Ohio and fresh cut, and the proceeds all go to forestry students. For some reason this tree, although very beautiful and symmetrical, was hard for me to decorate. The branches were mixed long and short, which meant that I not only could I decorate the tips of the branches, but I could decorate closer to the trunk. Of course, dark ornaments couldn’t be placed in the darker recesses of the tree, and all those varying branch lengths made for lots a nooks and crannies that could only take smaller ornaments. Of course, the three and a half hours that I spent on my tree doesn’t include the additional time that I will spend moving ornaments around because I have two red ones together or a shorter ornament where a longer one should be. Or all the time that I spend putting back ornaments that my cat, Mouse, has batted off the tree and carried around the house. She especially loves the plastic icicles that I have.

For those of you who have a live tree for the holidays, here are a few tips to keep your tree fresh through the season:

• When you first get your tree, make sure that the end has a fresh cut.
• After bringing the tree home, make sure that the tree says in water at all times. This will keep the end of the tree from forming a covering of resin,
• Provide plenty of water for the tree, especially for the first few days in your home. The tree will take up plenty of water, so it should be checked daily.
• Just regular tap water is fine for keeping the tree fresh.
• Make sure that you look over your lights each year, especially the cords, before placing them on your tree.
• Finally, when your are ready to take down the tree, consider recycling it someplace that will turn it into mulch. Or, do like we do: place the tree in secluded corner of our backyard, where it will provide shelter for small critters and birds.

Until next time!