Parental Guidance: Sandra Lee

The Christmas tree is an enduring holiday symbol and a hot debate in our home.
Thanksgiving is over and the holiday hoopla has begun with Christmas decorations already visible. It’s also time to start thinking about the Christmas tree.
Some families have to deal with serious conflicts of holiday customs such as trying to merge different religions. Others manage the delicate balance of where or when to host the holidays and which relatives to visit to try and give equal time - a more difficult task when traveling with young ones.
We’ve had our share of light drama over whether Christmas would be celebrated on the actual day or the day before to accommodate various family members. But there was a stranger - and more surprising conflict in my house when my husband and I first got together. We clashed over what kind of Christmas tree we’d have: live or fake.
When I was on my own in college a small fake tree was a necessity and growing up we’d always had an artificial tree. So I just assumed my husband and I would go to the local superstore, pick one out and be done with it.
Oh no! My husband wouldn’t have it. He’d always had a “live” tree as a child and had fond memories of the fresh pine smell in his home and that’s what he wanted. I argued that it wasn’t actually a live tree anymore once it was cut so technically it was a dying tree, but that didn’t sway him. No plastic branches for him.
I thought I’d come up with the perfect compromise: a live, rooted tree. This would give him his pine scent and nostalgic Christmas and I would feel better knowing it would be planted after the holiday instead of tossed on the street like a carcass.
Well, I hadn’t counted on how heavy that sucker would be. A tree with a huge burlap ball of dirt is pretty darn heavy. The cursing and fighting that occurred that day…well, it’s amazing we’re still together and that I didn’t become a permanent decoration on that tree.
That tree did have a happy ending being donated to a historic property, but I seem to have lost the battle and the war because every year since we’ve gotten a cut tree. Each year I keep thinking of suggesting another try but I haven’t summoned the courage yet. Maybe he’ll let me get a Charlie Brown size tree…hmmm.