Every year when I haul the Christmas tree out to the curb in January, shedding needles all the way, I wonder if I could have done something with the trunk. Does anyone here make nativity scenes or turn an ornament or two and stamp them with the year? Somehow it seems appropriate to save something from the tree that takes up so much of my living room nearly
1/10th of the year. ;-)-- Mark
Somewhere around here is the first piece of ww'ing(circa late 40's) I ever did. I used part of the trunk of our Christmas tree one year to make a candle holder for my Mother. IIRC, it was a Scotch Pine, nice long trunk sections between the branch "rings". Took a piece about 2"D x 1'L, flattened one side(drawknife?), wallowed out 3 holes for candles, then bored 4 holes about 5/16-3/8" to put some twigs in for legs. It graced her Christmas table the rest of her life, and we now have it.
We used to run it through the chipper/shredder. Then one year KMart had an after-Christmas sale and we bought a 7-foot artificial one for $15 and have not bought a cut one since. It has saved a lot of money and now we can keep the tree up from Thanksgiving to New Years.
Cat scratching post. Keep the bottom two feet of trunk and the log slice for the base. Strip the branches. Wrap jute string around the trunk and staple it down. Should last until next November and the new tree.
Yes, but they tend to accumulate. I already have about four bushels of ornaments which I store each year, yet Susan could only bear to part with a couple dozen for the daughter who was our second to set up separate housekeeping. After a bit your home made become much less important than the ones the kids made in elementary school, or friends gave as gifts, or you inherited from your parents....
On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 05:50:16 GMT, "Mark Jerde" calmly ranted:
Pineywood's no good for projects. Buy live trees and plant them on your property at the end of the season. I did that several times when I lived in SoCal.
Same here. I loved the real trees for their smell. However in the last 30 years the trees in my neck of the woods have no smell. I learned that the trees that we get are cut as early as late September.
A store we don't have . . something like "Tractor Supply" perhaps? Anyway, they've been running ads where Hubby buys too big a tree, whereupon a crew with chainsaws produces a goodly bunch of rustic outdoor deco.
Great fun. Makes me wanna buy a chainsaw.
I've always though it was kind of sad to drive along after Christmas and see all those beautiful little trees lying by the side of the road waiting to go to the dump. Somehow it just seems like they deserve better. Or maybe I'm just a sentimental fool.
Our block has an annual Week after New Years Bon fire. Pretty much evey one on the block hauls their trees down to my lot were we have a nice fire -then we toss the trees in 1 at a time. For those who never saw a Chrismas tree go up - its a sight to be seen.
Its a great wind down for everyone after the holiday season.
Much better than just letting them pile up.
Town I grew up in did the same thing out in an old corn field with the fire dept on hand. The whole pile went up in one shot... Usually 700 + trees in one bon fire. You could see it for miles!
Its a great wind down for everyone after the holiday season.
Much better than just letting them pile up.
I guess that makes two of us, John.
Thanks for the replies everyone. I appreciate the ideas, reminiscences, philosophies and sentiments.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
-- Mark
I recall when we were kids we would gather up all the discarded Christmas trees and build forts that would last for weeks after Christmas. In the early 80's my wife and I decided to have a bigger real tree. It was 11' tall and 7' wide at the bottom. As early as Christmas day the simple wind created when walking by the tree caused needles to fall of in clumps. Those needles would hit needles below and knock those off and so on. Later that day we took it down and squeezed through the 36" wide door opening. Not a single needle made it to the street. It looked like a plucked chicken.
Only four? Wuss. I have four bushels just in ornaments that are too "precious" to use until the day we no longer have cats, dogs, or children running around the house. (Which I hope is never.)
Mom still has an ornament I made in 4th grade, out of toilet paper.
Didn't live there long? Most of the live trees I've seen are blue spruces. They get HUGE eventually. We had some really pretty ones across the street, about 80' tall, until they got replaced with a 20' high concrete wall. :(
I don't have room for what they grow into, and I don't have any use for their corpses even after they get bigger, so I can't see doing the live tree thing. I can't see butchering a tree for no more noble purpose than sticking it in the corner as a holiday decoration either. So I'm all about plastic trees.
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