by Tao, Carrboro, NC

I’ve done many creative alternatives to a traditionally cut Yule tree over recent years. I’ve mostly gone w/o any “tree” at all and just wrapped lights around something in the house - like a chair. It’s been creatively fun and I didn’t miss the real thing much at all. But, this year, in honor of our new living situation, we brought home a cut tree and decorated it. Sure, it came from a local spot down the street, delivered from a nearby tree farmer, but it’s still a cut tree and I swear I saw a little red flag waving in the air as we brought it home. For awhile, it was wonderfully nostalgic to look at. But, over the weeks, as I noticed it asking for less and less water, I’ve felt sorrowful —-because in reality, I have a living thing in my house that is slowly dying. yep. the truth is darn painful and I’ve already decided I won’t do this again.

On a more merry note, there is another really really smart alternative showing up on the holiday scene. Living Trees for Rent! Read on from the LA Times, Home & Garden:

The Living Christmas Co. isn’t the first to rent trees. This West Coast phenomena cropped up in 1992, when The Original Living Christmas Tree Co. set up shop in Portland, Ore. That firm, which only operates in Portland, now rents Sequoias and Nordmann firs for $80, shipping them out and picking them up in hybrid Zipcars. San Francisco’s Friends of the Urban Forest offers full-size but non-traditional varieties of rentable trees, such as magnolias, for $95; the trees are later planted throughout the city. And San Diego’s Adopt A Christmas Tree delivers its $79-$189 live trees with singing and dancing elves in tow, then after the holidays donates them to families with fire-damaged homes and yards.

Cheers for Change!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.