Oh. Christmas Tree.

I was hesitant to get a Christmas tree this year. Although it is dramatic, beautiful, fragrant and the ultimate symbol of the season, it seemed a shame to be killing a living thing for ornamentation in the house. Yes, I understand that Christmas tree farms, since they are long term land management, as opposed to farming, are generally thought to be good for the land in terms of soil conservation and wildlife benefit. But still, hacking down a tree seems almost criminal. Call me crazy. It wouldn't be the first time.

I wouldn't get a "living tree" either. Those balled and burlapped trees rarely live beyond the holiday, and take a huge amount of effort. My understanding it that their production isn't as beneficial to the land as the regular cut tree. Most importantly, I don't have anywhere in my garden to plant such a tree, if it were to live.

What I would like to see is the use of invasive trees as holiday decoration. Those siberian elms have an attractive winter branching structure, especially when at a height that would be useful for indoor use. Although deciduous, I remember the Laura Ingalls Wilder book where in the story (was it "The Long Winter?") they didn't have any evergreen trees on the plains, and they used a deciduous tree, and decorated it lavishly. I did this last year, when due to travel, we would not be around to appreciate or dispose of a cut evergreen tree, and decorated the bare branches of a siberian elm in my house. I thought it was beautiful, in a more spare, modernistic way. I took the idea from Sunset magazine (see Sunset.com or Dec. 2005 issue - photo from their article, below).


Here's my version this year, also with siberian elm:

As it turns out, I was outvoted. We got a cut tree (top photo). It is delightful. And fragrant. And I got to unpack the ornaments.