Tree Farm

“…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well…May that be truly said of all of us…” - about the changed Ebenezer Scrooge, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Mr. Clark and I went to get our Christmas tree today, and were devastated to find the best Christmas tree source EVER is no longer selling trees. For twenty years we’ve made the short trek to Glass Tree Farm to find and cut the tree of our dreams - for only $20. (Actually, when we first started making the trip, the trees were only $15.)

This would be a great deal (and great experience) for anyone, but since our old house has big rooms with 13-foot ceilings, the opportunity to get a tree that will fill our space suitably – for only $20 – was an annual Christmas miracle. And, we came to depend on it and love it.

The first year we got our tree at Glass Tree Farm the kids were little – in the third and fourth grades – and, we were celebrating the first Christmas in our “new” house – the one we had worked so hard to renovate (and bring back to life from a fire) for the past year. We still hadn’t gotten used to how big our rooms were and how high our ceilings are, and our little family was very excited about the prospect of finding the perfect, really big tree.

Someone had told us about this great tree farm just outside of town, so we piled into the old Volvo wagon we had at the time (a 1970 version named Mr. Brown because of his character and color) and headed for a Christmas victory. Glass Tree Farm did not disappoint. We found the biggest, most spectacularly tall and round Cypress tree on the place, cut it down, tied it to the top of Mr. Brown, forked over our $15, and headed home, not believing our good fortune.

As is often the case with Christmas trees, when we got it inside, it looked a lot bigger than it had out in Mr. Glass’ field. Never mind, though! We put that huge tree up, decorated it with loving fervor, and enjoyed the heck out of it on through early February, even though it nearly filled a fourth of our really big dining room. (It seemed like a shame to take such a huge, beautiful tree down just because Christmas was over…)

The next year we went back to Glass Tree Farm, and the year after that, and the year after that…Several of our Christmas card photos were taken there, kids in Santa hats, festive family picking out a tree…Pretty soon, the little kids on the Christmas cards became gangly middle schoolers, still willing to sport a Christmas hat at the tree farm because, by this time that annual trip had become a well-loved family tradition…A few more years and the awkward middle schoolers on the Christmas card were replaced by attractive teenagers, willing at this point to don a festive holiday scarf or a pair of red tennis shoes, in a nod to holiday tradition…Once the kids went to college, it was Mr. Clark and I doing the Christmas tree shuffle alone, but we did it no less joyfully, because we knew the sight of that really big, really beautiful, really affordable tree would light up our kids’ faces, the minute they got home…

At some point along the way, pretty recently it seems, Mr. Glass raised his price from $15 to $20 – for any tree in his fields. We couldn’t believe it took him so long to make that $5 move, and we were more than glad to pay the “extra” as the trees we cut on his land continued to be the most spectacular beautiful Christmas trees “ever!” as the kids said every year, with every tree being “even better” than the last.

If you get your Christmas tree from the same man for 20 years (and it is as big of a deal as it was for our family) you get to know the tree farmer a little bit. We found out that Mr. Glass got into the business to “make a little extra money” to pay for his kids’ college; and, once the kids’ college was paid for, he liked selling Christmas trees enough to keep going...until, well, this year.

I don’t know why Mr. Glass decided not to sell any more trees. He’d been saying he was thinking about getting out of the business for several years now, which was understandable, given how long ago his kids graduated from college, and how much time it must’ve taken to tend to and clip all those trees into proper Christmas tree shape each year…But, we really were sad, when we drove up to his farm today, and there was no sign of Christmas tree sales, anywhere in sight.

So, thank you, Mr. Glass, for making so many of our holidays so merry and bright. Your wonderfully huge trees and incredibly affordable pricing have allowed our family to enjoy bigger and more spectacular Christmas trees than we could ever imagine, year after year; and, for that we are profoundly thankful. You gave us a lot of good memories and great Christmas card pictures, and for that, we most sincerely thank you, too.