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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

December 9th, 2010

Late Tuesday afternoon, Mr Chiots and I decided to head down to the local tree farm to get our Christmas tree. We went to Williamson Tree Farm on the outskirts of Carrollton, OH. It’s a small tree farm, very understated. They don’t have horse drawn carriages, nice big barns and all that stuff. They do have great service, great trees and great prices.



This was our first year getting a real Christmas tree since we’ve gotten married. We’ve had a fake one up until the year before last, we didn’t put anything up last year. When I was growing up we always had a fresh tree, we’d often make a trip of heading out to the tree farm to pick our perfect tree.

It was a cold day, the temperature was in the low 20’s when we left and right around 20 when we arrived home. That didn’t stop the tree farm people, they were all bundled up and ready to take you out to choose and cut your perfect tree. We picked out a cute little Frasier fir with lots of character (aka not perfect and straight).


We put our tree in the car, which just fit. Then we grabbed a bunch of pine boughs for decorating the stair railing and a few other spots around the house and we were on our way. They let us take as much of this as we wanted for free – a great bonus to shopping at a little tree farm instead of one of the big places!


One of things I love about this tree farm is that since it’s small, they plant the new trees in the spots in the field where others are cut down. Here’s a cute little future Christmas tree, in 5 or 6 years it will be filling someone’s home with holiday cheer.

Our little tree is set up in our living room. We decorated it with lights a few ornaments on Tuesday evening and it’s now bringing that wonderful fresh pine smell to our home and filling it with holiday cheer.

What kind of tree graces your home during the holidays?

22 Comments to “O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree”
  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by mark mile, Susy Morris. Susy Morris said: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree http://goo.gl/fb/KWGJ9 #holidays #christmastree […]

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  2. Corner Garden Sue on December 9, 2010 at 9:14 am

    I enjoyed your lovely photos and reading about the place you got your tree. When our kids were growing up, some years, we had live trees, and others, artificial. Now, we have a 6 foot narrow artificial tree for our small living room.

    Reply to Corner Garden Sue's comment

    • Susy on December 9, 2010 at 10:55 pm

      We were happy this one is quite narrow, we too have a fairly small living room.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  3. Rhonda on December 9, 2010 at 11:42 am

    We have a fake tree now but for years and years before I always got a blue spruce. I liked the spruce because it’s super prickly and the cats left it alone. I always made sure to get the saddest looking little trees. I just love the uneven branches and big spaces between the limbs. Trees like that make for the best looking Christmas trees because you can hang bigger ornaments in those spaces.

    Reply to Rhonda's comment

  4. Kathryn on December 9, 2010 at 12:16 pm

    We have a scrawny “alpine” fake tree. But it has a lot of meaning for us: http://kateekat.blogspot.com/2009/12/story-of-box.html This year will be the 8th year we’ve set it up.

    I didn’t have a tree for many years, but before that i always had live ones. I do kind of miss that. But i try to bring in some fresh greens for the scent. Our cats would be very hard on a live tree. I’ve heard that live trees are less harsh on the environment than artificial ones, but now that we HAVE the artificial one, i don’t think throwing it out would be an improvement!

    I do have lots of homemade ornaments on our tree when we do trim it. And lots of chosen ornaments that are not fancy or shiny, but have a place in our hearts.

    Reply to Kathryn's comment

  5. melissa on December 9, 2010 at 1:31 pm

    a fake one, sadly. we grew up having a real one but since it’s just me in the house with the cats I decided that (since we don’t have REALLY fresh trees here, they’re trucked in, so they’re already dry by the time we get them) the fire hazard was not worth risking my cats’ life for. If I could get them REALLY fresh like this and I had someone else in the house with me, I’d probably go for it.

    Reply to melissa's comment

    • Susy on December 9, 2010 at 10:55 pm

      You could do what they do in Colombia (no pine trees) and just get a sapling branch, glue cotton balls on it and decorate with ornaments. (sometimes they spray them gold, white, or silver).

      Our old cat used to LOVE to climb the Christmas tree, one year he knocked it over 15 times. They my parents bought a super heavy duty cast iron tree stand and it never happened again. We were wondering what our cats would do, but they pay less attention to our real tree than to the fake one we put up. They are enjoying sleeping under it basking in the warm glow of the lights.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  6. Kaytee on December 9, 2010 at 1:48 pm

    I have a fabulous 8′ tall fir tree (I’m not sure which species of fir). I absolutely refuse to have a fake tree. Since my fiance and I moved out from apartments and into houses, we’ve gotten a real tree. I think it just brings something special to the holidays. This year, we were like you and went to a small, family run farm and cut our own. I love helping these farmers and adding the key piece to my holiday decoration. Plus, I absolutely can’t stand “fluffing” artificial trees.

    Reply to Kaytee's comment

  7. Morgan G on December 9, 2010 at 3:38 pm

    Here in Southern California, we get our tree from a family-owned farm like Williamson (minus the snow). Typically we try to find the biggest, baddest one pine. This year, with different mindset, we opted for a smaller tree…it is the most beautiful we’ve ever had.

    Reply to Morgan G's comment

  8. Lucy on December 9, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    Lovely pics……..most years we have gotten a little tree to plant. We have had to move and so have left little groups of trees at two other homes. The tree usually ended up staying in the house until near spring, so it would get decorated for Valentine’s Day. We are out of room here so we have an artificial but the pruning of all the evergreen bushes is done now so our home is full of greens!

    Reply to Lucy's comment

    • Susy on December 9, 2010 at 10:52 pm

      We notice a few houses around here that do that, they have trees from small to large from past Christmases.

      Reply to Susy's comment

  9. Jennifer Fisk on December 9, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    I have a traditional Balsam Fir however I think it came from Canada. It was part of an annual fundraiser by the local highschool music boosters. The kids are going to London this spring so I thought it patirotic to by a Canadian tree to support them. OMG, that is totally convoluted thinking. Anyway, I’ve done my part. I always have a Balsam since they are widespread in Maine. I have a bunch in my yard but they aren’t pruned and shaped.

    Reply to Jennifer Fisk's comment

  10. deedee on December 9, 2010 at 10:49 pm

    fake:( maybe someday we’ll have a real one! beautiful photos, as usual:) tell mr c i’m loving the beard!!!

    Reply to deedee's comment

    • Susy on December 10, 2010 at 8:12 am

      Ah yes, it was actually quite long. He’s been growing it out for hunting – very manly eh! He just trimmed it short last night since we have a few weddings coming up (it was getting kind of long).

      Reply to Susy's comment

      • deedee on December 11, 2010 at 9:59 am

        definitely very manly! it looks good though:)

        to deedee's comment

  11. Kay on December 10, 2010 at 6:22 am

    We use small cedar trees that are on our property. They are not very showy, but I love the primative look it gives. I didn’t place lights on it this year – just a few ornaments.

    Merry Christmas.

    Reply to Kay's comment

  12. Tomika Maiden on December 10, 2010 at 8:54 am

    We have a gingerbread making party each year. It’s some thing we began over 20 years ago when my sister and I had been teenagers, and my little brother was at the proper age to enjoy such things (6-7). We alternate whose home it’s at each and every year, and sometimes we have themes or contests. We’ve built gingerbread churches, cabins, tents, lean-to’s, and replicas of our own actual homes. We also have spiced cider, play Christmas music, and get sick eating the candy we use to decorate the houses, but we usually have a blast. It’s incredibly nerdy, but enjoyable, and each and every year we have new individuals join us in the festivities, including our spouses, older brother, and now niece. It is a excellent method to invest an afternoon, and we all get to take house our creations at the end of the day.

    Reply to Tomika Maiden's comment

  13. Vegetable Garden Cook on December 10, 2010 at 9:26 pm

    I hacked down a tree that I needed to clear out for more veg garden. :)

    Reply to Vegetable Garden Cook's comment

    • Susy on December 11, 2010 at 12:54 am

      Perfect!

      Reply to Susy's comment

  14. rachel on December 10, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    I always get live plants for holiday trees. The past few years I’ve been getting those small rosemary bushes shaped like Christmas trees. It doesn’t fill the house with that pine smell, but the house does smell like rosemary, which is pretty good too. :) After the new year, the rosemary gets planted in the yard.

    Reply to rachel's comment

  15. Indoor Holiday Decor | Chiot's Run on December 11, 2010 at 4:46 am

    […] picking up our tree on Tuesday, we pulled out the bins of holiday decor from the basement and set about decorating the inside of […]

    Reply to Indoor Holiday Decor | Chiot’s Run's comment

  16. Jaime Hirst on January 17, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Jake and Edna are family, their tree farm is the best place to kick off your Christmas season.

    Reply to Jaime Hirst's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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