Treezilla 2008 is up but missing ornaments. Instead of hollering in the current events forum, I've been tree wrangling. So here comes the series of photos from dragging it inside to the stand to where it sits right now - lights and garland awaiting ornament hanging. I dispensed again this year with the bubble lights in addition to the twinkle lights. It was just too much work. My tree lights are all programmable - they are set to slowly fade between colors, which is why in the pictures the lights look a tad sparse - they are often between cycles. This keeps the tree visually interesting, and particularly suitable in the evening where it's not too bright.
The star on top is an LED light that color shifts and cycles slowly between blue, green, and red.
The tree stand pivots to help get the tree standing straight, and the green bottle on the bottom is a water reservoir that keeps the tree supplied with water. I usually have to fill it daily for the first week, then every third day in week two, and once or twice a week thereafter. Since I have two humidifiers running indoors to keep our humidity at or near 45% indoors (static electricity is very bad for computers and dry air kills my skin), the tree doesn't lose an excessive amount of moisture through the needles.
Some additional trivia:
In the northeastern United States, most Christmas trees are grown as crops on large tracts of land specifically for Christmas tree sales. The "crop" is renewable. In western New York, the most common Christmas trees are either grown in New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and North Carolina. Among the most popular tree choices here:
- Douglas Fir: Probably the most popular choice here, it's short and very wide with longer needles. It's grown in the Pacific Northwest and trucked into western New York. My mother usually liked to pick a Douglas fir. Unfortunately, they are so full, it's hard to find open gaps to hang heavier ornaments on inside branches.
- Concolor (a/k/a White Fir): Also very popular with longer needles, but I have not favored this tree because the branches tend to be droopy, so ornaments fall off. These are exceptional choices for very large spaces where you can put a 9 foot tree in, with lots of stronger branches and space to experiment with ornament placement, but alas my ceiling only allows for a 7.5 foot tree.
- Scotch Pine: Very long needle retention and stiff branches make this a popular choice for a Christmas tree, but I've never warmed to them.
- Colorado Blue Spruce: These things stay green and hold their needles forever, but they are vicious trees because the needles are stiff and sharp. You have to wear gloves to approach it. My father put one up one year when I was a child and spent all day cursing that decision as he tried to put lights on it.
- Fraser Fir: This is currently the favored "premium" tree in western NY. It carries a premium price too, but I have come to favor them year after year because their stiff branches hold needles forever, keep the ornaments on the tree, always have open spaces where you can hang large ornaments inside the tree and get them seen, and for their fragrance. These are grown almost exclusively in North Carolina for shipment around the northeast. Within a decade however, the 'Noble Fir' threatens to displace the Fraser as the "premium" choice. It's already very popular and common in the Pacific Northwest, so enough have been planted to help start moving them east of the Rockies.
In most areas, trees disposed on the curbside after the season are ground into mulch by the town or city government and used in public parks or given away to residents. So the cut tree never ends up in a landfill and are almost never taken from the wild.
Our Christmas tree for 2008 in a 7.5 foot Fraser Fir. I don't venture into fields and select one for cutting - too muddy. This one was picked from a tree stand and baled in a plastic netting to compact it for driving home. I leave the netting intact while getting the tree in the stand.
