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Oh Tannenbaum

December 8th, 2014

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!
They are green when summer days are bright,
They are green when winter snow is white.
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree,
Your branches green delight us!

Christmas tree 1
We arrived back in Maine on Saturday evening right around 10 pm. I’ll share more of our eventful trip tomorrow. After coffee, unpacking and lots of chores on Sunday, we headed out to gather our Christmas tree in the afternoon. We like to cut a free range tree from our property, the less perfect the better.
Christmas tree 2
We found a sweet little balsam fir conveniently located right by the driveway and decided it would be perfect. Out came the ax and down came the tree. The trees in this area need thinned out anyways, so it’s nice to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.
Christmas tree 3
Of course I did double duty and took some photos for the glove company I work for, why not, right?
Christmas tree 4
Christmas tree 5
I trimmed it with lights and then later in the evening I pulled out my etched glass balls to dress it up a bit. A tree like this really needs not much more than one strand of lights, it’s simplicity is really what makes it beautiful. I will give you one great recommendation, put your Christmas tree lights on a dimmer switch, especially if you use the big old fashioned lights. It’s nice to be able to dim the tree in the late evening.

Do you put up a tree to celebrate the holidays?

9 Comments to “Oh Tannenbaum”
  1. kristin @ going country on December 8, 2014 at 6:03 am

    We got ours yesterday at our usual junk-farm Christmas tree place (meaning it’s kind of a redneck junky farm that also sells Christmas trees for 15 dollars no matter the size and they don’t care if you wander all over their acreage with your kids and dogs, inspecting trees and old pieces of farm machinery). Our children were beside themselves with ecstasy at bringing some of the forest into our house. There was even a surprise bird’s nest way inside the tree that my older son discovered. They spent the entire hour after the tree went up and before bed playing some elaborate game with their bird ornaments and the tree.

    I could probably get away with not even decorating the thing, they’re so enthralled with it as a plaything. But I will decorate it. And then probably spend the next month nagging at them to be careful with the tree.

    Christmas is so fun (albeit a little insane) with little kids.

    Reply to kristin @ going country's comment

  2. Jaye Whitney on December 8, 2014 at 9:14 am

    That is one beautiful tree!!! I love the separation of the branches so the ornaments can hang down.

    Reply to Jaye Whitney's comment

  3. PennyAshevilleNC on December 8, 2014 at 10:43 am

    I love the dimmer idea! We usually skip a tree since we travel for Christmas, but this year we will get one from our produce stand merchant down on the corner of our street.
    I know my husband would appreciate some good work gloves- and I know y’all have trustworthy recommendations– would you let me know what they are? Thanks- and Happy Christmas Season!

    Reply to PennyAshevilleNC's comment

  4. Colleen on December 8, 2014 at 11:20 am

    Your Christmas tree is always so beautiful. I agree, simplicity. Yes, we always have a tree to help celebrate the season. Most years we hunt for the perfect imperfect tree on our property, however this year we went to a local tree farm. We planted another 20 trees that arent quite ready to harvest. Thanks for the dimmer switch idea. I was impressed with your tree stand, we usually need a tree trunk a lot thicker to make our stand work, is there a brand name? Have a wonderful Christmas.

    Reply to Colleen's comment

  5. Nebraska Dave on December 8, 2014 at 1:48 pm

    Susy, I would say that you have indeed picked the most imperfect tree compared to the world view of trees. You have heard me talk about my Charlie Brown tree that I put up every year. Well, this year it’s going up again but I may give a make over. Ten years of the same ornaments is long enough, don’t you think? Every thing needs a make over once in awhile, don’t you think?

    Have a great Christmas tree decorating day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  6. Kristen on December 8, 2014 at 5:04 pm

    We went to a local tree farm and cut down our tree last evening. My husband got called into work at the last minute so we were racing against the approaching dark. We chose one and received “the first real sized candy cane of the season” to my son’s delight. We took it home and had a fabulous time rediscovering favorite ornaments and decorating it. We only broke 3 ornaments, 1 by the boy, 2 by the mom! I do love Christmas lights and am happy to have it up.

    Reply to Kristen's comment

  7. Charlie@Seattle Trekker on December 8, 2014 at 6:42 pm

    It is definitely time to be thinking about a tree, the nudge was very helpful. Time to take care of this before it turns really cold.

    Reply to Charlie@Seattle Trekker's comment

  8. Trish on December 8, 2014 at 7:40 pm

    no tree this year – not with a kitten in the house!

    Reply to Trish's comment

  9. Angela from Maine on December 9, 2014 at 8:40 pm

    Oh, that light, those woods! I don’t think there’s anything like that except in Maine. Lovely.

    Reply to Angela from Maine's comment

About

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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