That time of the year at last must come. To take down the Christmas decorations and put away the lights. This always makes me feel sad. The finality of the end of the season. The saddest moment is taking out the Christmas tree to the sidewalk as it showers the last vestiges of its needles along its way. That tree that once stood proud and tall, ornamented in golden lights and decorations, now lies on the sidewalk abandoned, clothed in nothing more that a delicate blue wrap (formerly packaging for medical equipemnt). Shivering in this cold winter snap as it awaits its final journey. This tree that has provided those 6 weeks of joy and happiness now alone waiting for the recycling truck. To add insult to injury, the recyclers remove the tree's only garment and cast the blue drapery to the sidewalk as they hurl the naked conifer onto their vehicle. I'll never look at wood chips in the same way again.
4 comments:
I took down our (measly) Xmas decor last week. Now my door looks so bare, I'm tempted to get lots of tacky bright red Chinese New Year decor so that it doesn't feel so unloved!
well, you know I'm the grinch so take the following with a grain of salt...
SERVES YOU RIGHT! You should feel guilty! I hate this practise of Christmas trees indoors. Why do people cut down trees, kill a beautiful stunning testimony to nature, for 6 weeks of mild joy? Seems to support theory on collective consumer blindness at Christmas time.
ugh, might as well post a stuffed horse leg on the mantle while you're at it.
(ok ok, probably more grinchy than was necessary)
and before you start talking to me about turkey, I'll let you know you can't gnaw on a christmas tree for survival... but you can make jam out of pinecones. French people learned a lot during the occupation.
The general misconception is Christmas trees are anti-environemntal. The trees in Milton are recycled as mulch for gardens, lawns and parks renewing the cycle of life. The trees are actually grown for this purpose orginally but the little holiday joy they spread is a nice little side line.
People often misconstrue my argument against Christmas trees as an environmentalist argument. It an ethical/aesthetic argument: the horror at seeing something beautifully alive, cut off from its roots, dragged inside and slowly left to die.
On the other hand, arguing from an environmentalist point of view, if trees are grown just for mulch, that's a lot of mulch we seem to need to artificially boost our concept of nature, aka parks and lawns. I don't hear of any forests screaming for mulch.
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