Our Christmas Tree Ritual

Thanks to Aurelio Delacruz

Everyone has their own family rituals at Christmas. For us, one of them was selecting the family Christmas tree. When I was kid in the suburbs, my parents always bought a pre-cut tree from a lot along a busy highway near our home. But after I married and moved to the country, I began taking a more old-fashioned approach. My husband and I started choosing and chopping our tree at a local farm.


Every year I'd bundle the kids in warm clothes and boots, lock the back door and set our SecurityChoice home alarm system, and pile into the car for our holiday adventure. Our family only had to drive about ten minutes to get to the Christmas tree farm, with its acres and acres of beautiful trees. The farm had been in the same family for so many years that my husband remembered visiting there when he was just a kid too. Our own children loved to scout the trees row by row to make sure they made the right choice. Then they would watch as their dad took on the big job of chopping the tree down with an ax.

Back home, we'd unload the tree, carry it up the back steps and set it up in our living room. Then it was time for the kids to take part in another family ritual - trimming the tree with their favorite ornaments.