Finally Back Again (I Hope)
Posted on: December 8, 2008 by Matt
It seems like it has been forever since I have had a chance to post with any regularity. I am hoping to get back in the swing of things this week and back to my usual daily posts. Right now it looks like work is going to slow down as I am getting in the swing of things and the dust is starting to settle from our move. I still have a bit of unpacking to do but I think that most of the family is getting there.
Anyway – over the weekend we picked up our Christmas tree for the year. I had thought about going up to my grandmother’s land (where I grew up) and hunting one down myself for free but time was not on my side. We stopped in at a pretty nice tree lot (they had a fair amount of space to set up, not like the urban style fit 1 million trees in 25 square feet lots you sometimes see). I was hoping to get away for under $40 (which I managed to do at $35 for a really nice tree) but was surprised to see that the majority of trees were closer to $50. In fact my girlfriend’s four year old son was helping me and the first tree he ran up to was not priced visibly – when we asked we were told it was $50. I convinced him that we should look around a bit more for the “best tree ever”. As it turns out we found it and the tree was the best ever due to the fact that it had “a red tag on top”. It seems that everything related to the holidays is just getting more and more expensive (and showing up earlier) every year.
We got the tree and decorated it yesterday and spent an entire day as a family fun, holiday decorating day. It was a blast and easily worth the $35 cost of the tree and I would have paid $50 for the day we had if it came down to it. I guess I just can not believe how much everything costs – I mean to pay $50 for something that you are going to keep a couple of weeks (maybe) and then throw out? Seems a little silly to me but I guess the market is there.
How about you? Anyone out there pick up a tree yet? How much did you end up paying for your perfect Christmas tree?
We have a fake one, it cost us $75 las year and it has the lights pre installed. I love the smell and feeling of real trees but with the strain that it puts on the environment I cannot make myself cut a tree down every year for the next 70..(I am planning on being really old).
It also saves money! Even if we only have this tree for 10 years you would have spent up to $400 or more on the tree where the fake one is still just as green as ever.
Yeah – I entertained the idea of a fake one but I just have a really hard time going for one. I know that the cost savings is there and that it is more friendly to the environment and that the quality has gotten a lot better, etc…
I just feel like I have to have a real tree or it won’t be Christmas… I grew up with a real tree and the smell is enough to run me back to happy childhood memories.