Christmas Trees

Has anyone bought a live Christmas tree in recent years? Have any of you bought them in a city? Or city suburb? I don't know about small towns, but here on the East Coast, in the suburbs of our Nation's capital, decent trees cost upwards of $70! For a tree. That's going to die. I, personally, think this is ridiculous and I fight every year to find an affordable, yet elegant tree. No such luck. My mother (who went artificial many moons ago) informed me tonight if I put the money from last year and this year that I spent on dead trees I could have been halfway to purchasing a realistic fake.While I'm always one for a bargain, I just can't find the magic of Christmas in a fake tree. And my husband agrees.

My husband also thinks it's perfectly okay to pay the outrageous price of $70. He is not a fan of big corporate chain stores. He loves supporting small, local, family owned businesses. And so a lot of the tree stands in our neck of the woods are right up his ally. This year I got a coupon for a fraser fir (our favorite!) from ACE Hardware for $29.99 ($29.99!!). So I casually mentioned how at this point we would only have our tree up for 3 weeks. And how we would be out of town this year and not even able to enjoy it on Christmas. And that maybe we should drive a bit out of our way to a few towns over and take advantage of this deal. I even went so far as to mention that my uncle works as a higher up in the ACE corporation and how could we choose to support another family over OUR family? I had him convinced. And then we went here.

Homestead GardenswDavidsonville. MD

Homestead Gardens is a super cool store. But it's a super PRICEY store. And I was super scared of the prices we'd find on these trees. We went in tasked to get a tree for the husband's office (they were paying so we could go pricey). But I knew as soon as I saw the rows and rows of beautifully displayed trees he was going to want one. And my netted, hardware store bargain was not going to measure up. Cringing, I looked at the price tags (they actually had price tags on the trees, which was so cool--no estimating size only to be told that's actually a 7 foot tree not a 6 foot tree and that's going to cost $20 more, and no, sorry ma'am but we won't split the difference and call it 6.5--where's their giving spirit!?!). Anyway, I looked at the price tag of a gorgeous 6 1/2 foot fraser fir and freaked. $39.99! What!?!  That must be a mistake. But no...it was right! Under $40? Only $10 more than my coupon? And supporting a local business?? SOLD.

M & his Homestead Tree

We later were told our particular tree was a #2. Meaning it didn't quite measure up to be a #1 which were, in fact, selling for $59.99. Our #2 had a "lump" that didn't quite make it perfect Christmas condition. But you know what? Our tree spot faces a wall of windows, so we pushed that "lump" right up against them and you can't even see it. Our reject tree looks quite nice, if you asks me!

And it didn't break the bank!