I always get melancholy when Christmas comes to it’s abrupt end. Not that I’m so holiday oriented, it’s seeing how little it matters when it’s over.
The trees tossed on the curb like discarded bodies, particularly disturb me; so many chopped down for our one month of Yuletide amusement.
Yeah, I know, they’re recycled into mulch, but I’d rather see them majestically governing the parks and woods of our great land.
What’s mulch? It’s ground up bark and leaves you then scatter to make plants and trees grow, that we will eventually just hack, so no mulch lectures if you please.
I’m a big believer in nature having feelings. Did they have families? Is some tiny tree searching for it’s mom? Yeah, Susannah, get a grip, but the waste of it all truly makes me sad.
It takes so long for an evergreen to grow into it’s proud, statuesque self, then we come along and shorten it’s life by about 100 years, and for what, to have something to put our gifts under?
What’s the answer? Artificial trees, which I’ll admit, are very ugly are not. I remember my mother almost stabbing my father with our Christmas star, tossing it out on the front lawn, when he brought one home.
But I think we should start decorating what we can keep that will continue to flourish way after that last Noel….like a ficus tree, or potted palm. No, it won’t look like Twas the Night Before Christmas and All Through the House…but nature will be so much happier holding on to her own.
And as far as mulch goes…mulch this. 
SB
Sad to see trees go but glad all that holiday nonsense is over!
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I am too. Wish the debris was all cleared away.
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I always loved having a real tree growing up, mostly for the smell of it, but you’re right that it is a waste of all those trees every year. I don’t know if it makes you feel any better that most of them are grown on farms. We had a fireplace growing up, so we would cut up the tree and use it for firewood, so at least it kept us warm too.
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I love you David, but it’s like when I’m told minks are raised specially for coats. I love the smell too and I’m not arguing their beauty which is why we decorate our homes with them, I’m just sad for their short lifespan.
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I recall Christmases in Singapore, where it’s always Summer. You can’t hang baubles on a palm tree and you can’t eat turkey and knobby greens al fresco. It’s just all wrong. We had to drink extra wine to compensate!
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I’m merely advocating for the trees. That’s all. It’s sad to me.
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Yes, me too. You could argue that without the Christmas demand, they wouldn’t be planted in the first place but it’s still sad to see them so unceremoniously discarded on the twelfth. I don’t anthromophise their efforts to cheer, rewarded with composting.
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Im told they’re raised on farms just for the purpose of Xmas. How is that any better. I must be missing something. Nothing unusual.
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That’s good news. But would still like to see it in the forest.
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Hey Susannah, it looks like my comment didn’t appear in your post, but your reply did. Maybe you have to approve it?
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I’m having wordpress issues. Can you send it again, please?
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The good news is that the lumber from the Rockefeller tree reportedly goes to Habitat for Humanity to build homes for needy families.
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I didn’t know that. Wish they would make rounds throughout the city to gather all these sad trees.
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Hear~ Hear~ My sentiments exactly! What a waste of precious greens just to adorn our living rooms for a few days. But then this is a wasteful society we live in. Bah humbug!
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I’d love Bah humbug stitched on a pillow…:)
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Don’t worry Susannah, 95% of the trees used were planted for the sole purpose of Christmas. After New Years, we put our tree by a little woods on the side of the yard (we live in the boonies) to provide extra shelter for the birds and little animals. And in the spring, yes, we mulch it.
Here’s a cheerful thought: While the tree farms are growing all these trees, think about all the carbon dioxide they take in and the oxygen they give off. If not for the purpose of Christmas, they wouldn’t be growing at all.
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You know Skinny, the older I get, the more my sensitivity increases. I am saddened over dead things whether they’re grown for a purpose like trees on a farm or otherwise. I cry when flowers die once so beautiful. I also think we’re very spoiled and too casual about things. Thinking a creature gets to be warm in your discarded tree, is a sweet image. Sadly here where I live no one cares about anything but themselves. Sigh
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Susannah, I’m the same way with my flowers. I have several large beds and hardly ever pick them. My honey is always telling me to pick bouquets before they’re gone. But I like looking at them outside. The only time I picked my favorite flowers was to make bouquets for my mother.
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I love tea roses. They’re my favorites. I get so excited when I get them out of the blue, trimming their stems each day…adding an aspirin and a prayer. When they start to go I am so sad. Silly I know. But I’m just a goofy Thin Girl when all is said and done Ms Skinny…:)
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