Cut to the Chase: Memories made from trees

As I look at taking the Christmas tree down this week, I am thinking it will make nice mulch for someone, or a great home for some well-deserving fish. But regardless of our tree’s afterlife, it has helped create memories that will last for years.

It seems like every year a great debate springs up over Christmas tree preferences: live vs. artificial. For many years, the Christmas tree in our home was of the artificial variety, and it had many wonderful qualities. It was economical (we didn’t have to buy a fresh tree); it was convenient (it was in our storage space only a few feet from our living room); and it did have a certain sustain ability aspect that my husband and I appreciated. Artificial trees do serve a purpose, but what I’ve discovered recently has changed our tradition for several reasons.

Since moving back to Missouri a few years ago, my family has enjoyed getting a live Christmas tree to have in our home during the holiday season. That first year, we decided to chop down a cedar out of our woods instead of putting up the artificial tree that we had used for so long. It was tattered and the wire boughs were fragile and broken. The warmth of a live tree and the aroma it brought into our home was amazing, so we used cedar again the next year. As a bonus, our kids enjoyed going out with my husband to pick the tree, cut it down and bring it back to the house.

At the request of our youngest son, three years ago we opted for picking out a tree at a local tree farm in central Missouri and have done so ever since. What I’ve come to realize is the excursions into the woods, or on the tree farms, have made indelible memories for our kids. It’s more difficult to accomplish that by pulling some plastic out of storage.

I’ve also realized there’s an upside to cutting or buying a fresh tree: It’s sustainable, too. According to the National Christmas Tree Association, for every tree harvested, one to three seedlings are planted in the spring, and currently, there are 350 million real Christmas trees growing in the U.S. All of those trees are planted by farmers. In addition, harvested Christmas trees find new life beyond the holiday season through recycling programs—there are more than 4,000 such programs in the U.S.—that turn them into mulch, compost or cover for fish and wildlife.

This year, a checkoff program was proposed that would have added a fee to live Christmas tree purchases, a whole 15 cents. The program was abandoned after media picked up on it and dubbed it a “Christmas tree tax.” The fee would have funded advertising and promotion of the live Christmas tree industry and supported the farmers that bring memories into homes each year.

So as you take your tree down this year, consider the memories it makes, the people the Christmas tree industry supports and the environment that recycled trees benefit. Where will you get your tree next year?

(Editor’s note: Rebecca French Smith, of Columbia, is a multi-media specialist for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.)