# Mikey's Sad Little Christmas Tree Story



## Mike Hill (Dec 22, 2017)

I didn’t want to go. Crowds, crowds and more crowds – yet it was the Home Depot. Mindlessly breathing in the smell of new tools, my wife abruptly suggested that I should move on. As usual, I had the “IGNORE” mode on again! I pulled the trigger. As to be expected, electrons flowed, it sprung to life, became useful, and oh so wonderful and powerful. Electrons weren’t the only things flowing. Also testosterone. Also creative juices. What noise, what power! All I could think about was “I need it – imagine all the things I could make!”


*Come on Hon!*


Snapping to, I obeyed! I followed the voice – yet where was I? Oh yes, tree hunting! Still feeling the effects of surging testosterone, my mind was woozy from the in-rush of creative juices. I moved robotically through the automatic doors into and past the greenhouse. Some unrelenting primeval force pushed me right past all those perfect green needles – back - all the way to a dark corner far removed from the bustle of the season. There, hanging on a wire, half there and half not - crooked and slanted. More, bare than full and with its bottom limbs more brown than green, it stood - the sad little Christmas tree. Standing would not be the correct interpretation of what it was doing. The poor little tree was doing the best it could. All the busy people were passing it by, searching for the perfect tree - the tree to glorify the front window. The tree that would show the world how expert they were in picking the perfect Christmas tree.


There in front of me was this poor pitiful tree. Its brown needles were oozing sadness. Melancholy seemed to cloth its sad existence.

I just stood there peering into its pitifulness, its meagerness. Gazing at its wretchedness, a tear moistened my cheek over the loneliness I imagined it was feeling. The tree had been singled out, set aside and discarded; it was awaiting its trip to the dumpster.


startled – awakened again --- *Let's go, Hon!*


Vaguely I overheard something being said about no good trees here and needing to leave. I was feeling pressure to go about the rest of my day. Yet, firmly positioned in a shady corner of my brain was a vivid picture of that sore, lonely tree.


Our next stop was a tree lot in front of the school that had proudly been set up on that corner for forty years. It smelled like a forest, but with bright lights and people and employees running around. A small fire was smoldering, spreading the warm, comfortable smell of conifers up and down the street. But I couldn’t tarry, the process of elimination had begun without me - Too big – Too small – Too fat – Too skinny - Too tall - Too short - Needles not right - The needles will fall off. Until “just right!” “What ----- $300?” “We’ll do the Christmas Vacation thing.”


*Let’s go, Hon.*


What to do now? The wife, was by now, not in the best of moods. Discouraged, all she wants is the perfect Christmas tree. She wanted the “One” to display in the front window. Driving on, we had the radio tuned to the All-Christmas station. In between all the bells and carols, nestled in after the red-nosed reindeer and before the snowman and the jolly old elf was the song that was to stir my soul - “Mary did you know!” Being sung was the line, “And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.” This line summed it all up in the blink of my eye – much like a 2x4 up aside my head. This season is about more than gifts, more than family, more than tinsel, more than all the bright twinkling lights, and more than the big star on the local barn. Certainly more than the big blow-up Santas.


My thoughts went to that corner of my mind, that dusty little-used and secret corner, the corner where the picture of that lonely tree resided. This is a season of love – yes! This is a season of giving – yes! This is a season of light – yes! But more importantly, it is a season of life! God gave life to his son so that we, his children, may have life through him.


Also a season of appreciating. But not just to appreciate what we have, but to appreciate what we have been given by God. He gave us his Son - perfection in human form. Jesus probably had his warts – his dirty feet. He looked like the rest of us – perhaps even less so. He was tempted like the rest of us – perhaps even more so. The finest kingly clothes he never wore. He did not have a house or even a bed to his name. He was despised, hated, and feared by many - yet loved by more.


I knew what I had to do! I put the Jeep in gear and made a quick left. It was as if I didn't need to steer; the car seemed knew the way without my intervention. It made a beeline to the Depot, a trip it had made countless times. Breathlessly I raced to that lonely back corner. Breathlessly, I was hoping that I had not strayed from my mission for too long. It might not be there – having been ingloriously tossed into the dumpster. But there in the dark shadows - the Tree - the perfect tree, with all its crookedness, its barrenness, and all its brownness. The unloved tree.


It will now have a home

It will now shine brightly

It will now have a purpose

It will now be loved - no longer sad!


My Christmas now complete, I was satisfied and smug. A sense of freshness and contentedness took up residence in my soul. It was so not because of all the bright lights and shiny gifts. It was so, because of one tiny, lonely crooked tree! One lonely tree showed me that this was the season for Life!

Reactions: Like 4 | Great Post 11 | Way Cool 2


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## Tony (Dec 22, 2017)

Great story Mike!!!! Tony


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## ripjack13 (Dec 22, 2017)

Great story...

Lets see the lil feller in all his glory.

Reactions: Agree 3 | Funny 1


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## jasonb (Dec 22, 2017)

Soooo the wife was okay displaying the tree in the front window?

Reactions: Like 1


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## Nature Man (Dec 22, 2017)

Good reality check! You should be writing books! Chuck


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## Mike1950 (Dec 22, 2017)

Gramps cut christmas Trees in 40's thru 60's. He got $300 for for a whole load of trees then..... They are spendy. Great story


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## vegas urban lumber (Dec 26, 2020)

i grew up working on my fathers christmas tree farms in southern oregon. hated most all of it, especially the harvest in the rain culminating on thanksgiving weekend. christmas trees are sheared for shape every year, grow about 1 foot per year. are fertilized annually in the spring. Handles cut first 3 years on each tree ( limbs around stump area cut off). harvested bailed and loaded on trucks by size and type. in the late 80's early 90's my father got about $1.00 per foot for a harvested tree. meaning about $7.00 on average. about the early 2000s,(after he had quit the business) prices on harvested trees nearly tripled. i saw trees at the las vegas home depot last week for about $65 to $90 retail.

i have only had one real tree for christmas since leaving home. just have flashback of pitch, pine needle pokes, cold wet nasty weather every time i smell a conifer. moved to vegas to get out of the rain on purpose!

Reactions: Sincere 3


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## Tony (Dec 26, 2020)

When I met my wife, her parents owned and operated a Christmas tree farm in East Texas. We would go out there every year for a week in December and help them sell trees. Of course we went throughout the year for visits and holidays, (they lived there), and I spent plenty of time running the tractor, trimming trees, clearing stumps, etc. Funny thing is, we never had a real tree. Nikki's allergies go crazy with one, so fake trees for us!

Reactions: Like 3


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## Gdurfey (Dec 26, 2020)

Lucked onto this post. Great read @Mike Hill , thank you again.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Mr. Peet (Dec 27, 2020)

Familiar story Mr. Mike. A Hill worth climbing. My sister-in-law manages a Lowes, so the story has been told to us in different ways. A $300 tree...that is more than my weekly paycheck. Not sure if we ever paid for a Christmas tree. We have bartered and traded for trees, but cut most ourselves.

Dead trees, we have a family that gets a dead tree with their live one. The dead one goes on the porch, by the previous year's wreath. It gets decorated, holiday packages are placed there by delivery carriers to await the family finding them. The tree they have this year is a copper gold.

Our tree is typically picked weeks to months before the season. Often a removal for a landscape change for a customer or something of the sort. Sometimes a whole tree, sometimes just the top of a tall tree, sometimes a shrub, as the kids would say. In our house, looks matter little as Christ carries the reason. Last year's was taken out of a 25' blue spruce removal. The decorated was for the holiday, the other was in January. We slowly trim the tree crown tighter and tighter and feed the stove until it is gone. So we use it at many levels.






A fir we bartered for:



An Alberta spruce:

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## DLJeffs (Dec 28, 2020)

Love the Alberta spruce. I bet not many people have ever had an Alberta spruce for their tree.

When we lived in American Samoa, there were no evergeen trees (well, all the trees stayed green all year round, but they weren't Christmas tree type trees). Anyway...Mom asked one of her students (she and Dad taught at the high school) to bring her three fronds off a coconut tree. She tacked the first one vertically on the wall with the heavy end butted against the floor. She trimmed off the fronds for a span of about a foot above the floor. She took the other two fronds and tacked them one on each side of the vertical one. The tops of all three came together in a point, the bases tapered out into a triangle shape. We hung lightweight paper ornaments, sea urchin skeletons and flowers on the palm fronds. I think the second year Dad even tacked a string of lights on it. That was our Christmas tree. Presents were stacked against the wall "under the tree". Probably one of the best lessons I've had about living in the moment and not being so tied to "the traditional way of doing things" that you lose sight of the reason why you do them in the first place.

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## Ralph Muhs (Dec 28, 2020)

Mike Hill said:


> I didn’t want to go. Crowds, crowds and more crowds – yet it was the Home Depot. Mindlessly breathing in the smell of new tools, my wife abruptly suggested that I should move on. As usual, I had the “IGNORE” mode on again! I pulled the trigger. As to be expected, electrons flowed, it sprung to life, became useful, and oh so wonderful and powerful. Electrons weren’t the only things flowing. Also testosterone. Also creative juices. What noise, what power! All I could think about was “I need it – imagine all the things I could make!”
> 
> 
> *Come on Hon!*
> ...


Well, you sure do write well!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Mr. Peet (Dec 28, 2020)

DLJeffs said:


> Love the Alberta spruce. I bet not many people have ever had an Alberta spruce for their tree.
> 
> When we lived in American Samoa, there were no evergeen trees (well, all the trees stayed green all year round, but they weren't Christmas tree type trees). Anyway...Mom asked one of her students (she and Dad taught at the high school) to bring her three fronds off a coconut tree. She tacked the first one vertically on the wall with the heavy end butted against the floor. She trimmed off the fronds for a span of about a foot above the floor. She took the other two fronds and tacked them one on each side of the vertical one. The tops of all three came together in a point, the bases tapered out into a triangle shape. We hung lightweight paper ornaments, sea urchin skeletons and flowers on the palm fronds. I think the second year Dad even tacked a string of lights on it. That was our Christmas tree. Presents were stacked against the wall "under the tree". Probably one of the best lessons I've had about living in the moment and not being so tied to "the traditional way of doing things" that you lose sight of the reason why you do them in the first place.



This year's Alberta.

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