tree ethics

It has been recently discussed that Jennifer has strong opinions as to when a Christmas tree should be put up.  Usually she waits until the weekend closest to December 15th and does all the decorating then.  But she went shopping on Friday and bought some lights for the outside of the house.  It was sort of icky and rainy all weekend so she didn't feel like putting up the outdoor decorations, but she did decide to do some of the non-tree decorating inside.

The non-tree stuff involves a lot of climbing around on the furniture and trying to get strings of lights around the windows or the edges of the rooms.  Somewhere during this process, usually around the time she is precariously balanced on the back of a chair in the den and has just, for about the 4th time, dropped a push-pin that she had been holding between her teeth, and a pin that she had thought was securely fastened (and therefore she had moved the step ladder) has fallen out, Jennifer asks, "why do I do this every year?"  By the time she thinks to question the process, she's far enough along that she might as well finish.  And then when it's all done and the lights are all shiny and sparkling, she remembers, "oh, right.  That's why I do this."

While she was getting all the lights and stuff out of the basement, Jennifer figured she might as well bring up the ornaments.  So now everything but the tree is ready to go.  So next weekend, she'll haul the tree out of the basement.  That too always leads to general frustration and some amount of cursing.  But once it's up and decorated, all is forgiven. 

Recently Jennifer was talking to her mother about the irony of how certain things about the holidays make people so hostile.  Everyone's supposed to be all "peace on Earth, goodwill toward men," but yet they're fighting for parking spaces and body-checking each other in crowded malls, stampeding to get the must-have toy of the year, or stressing over what to get for that one person on their list for whom they just never have any gift ideas.  "I know," responded Jennifer's mom.  "And now we have to deal with the protesters at the Christmas tree lots."

Huh?

Jennifer has enough trouble with the fake tree, and since it is clearly advisable to be at least 2 people when dragging a real tree around, she was unaware that Christmas tree purchasing had become so politically charged.  Apparently there is a movement of some environmental group to get people to stop using real trees at Christmas time.  Something about de-forestation.  And they say if you must use a real tree, replant it in your yard when you're done with it.

Okay, this is just silly.  First place, we're pretty sure the Christmas trees one buys at a lot like the ones being picketed are farmed specifically for this purpose.  It's not like we're cutting down redwoods here, people.  Second place, it would seem that most tree collection services are taking the old trees and chipping them up for mulch, or some other perfectly environmentally friendly purpose.  And third place, the replanting thing idea is all fine and good if you have a yard larger than a postage stamp.  But for some people it's just not practical.  For example, Jennifer's mom commented that she couldn't imagine what her property would look like if she had been sticking a tree in the yard every January for the past 28 years.  Well, she can imagine it...but it's a pretty funny picture.