“I think it’s time to buy a tree,” announced my wife a few weeks after we purchased our first house in Friday Harbor. And for once, I agreed. Ordinarily, I liked to put it off. I had some silly notion that the Christmas tree should be brought in on Christmas Eve with snow still clinging to its branches, and the children all starry-eyed with hands clutched under their chins looking up at it. 

But every year, the season seems to come sooner; and for a few years, I felt it was pushed on us. I didn’t want to participate until I was darn good and ready. But now, with two kids and a mortgage payment to make life seemed to be going by so fast that I couldn’t keep up with it. I wanted to make the season last as long as it could, or it would all be over before I was fully aware that it had begun. 

“I think it’s best if I go without Henry,” I said. Our six-year old already had a reputation for selecting the scrappiest little Charlie Brown trees anyone’s ever seen, and convincing us to get them. “I’ll take Erich while Henry’s in school.” At age two, Erich had no established preferences on Christmas trees, and what’s more, he was famously agreeable. I was confident that he would like whatever tree I picked.

“Choose a nice one,” urged my wife. “Get the biggest Noble Fir you see.”

I pulled up to the Christmas tree lot in our old station wagon. It wasn't the perfect car for every occasion, but with its paint job already shot, and its luggage rack already bowed in all the right places, I knew it would accommodate any tree I put on top of it. 

Since I was parked under a No Parking sign, I knew I had to act quickly. I kept the two year-old strapped into his car seat and relayed my instructions to Susie, the tree seller. 

“I have a big noble fir right here,” she said. And indeed, there was a big noble fir.

“It’s huge,” I said. The tree swelled before my eyes. It’s green was so vibrant that the day went pale around it. “I always choose the first tree I look at,” I said. “I should look at some more.” So Susie showed me all the trees that were unwrapped and even dragged a couple from behind her office and unwrapped those so that I could make a good choice. But no tree could match the first one she showed me. 

With the parking attendant making his way toward us I said “I’ll take it!” And when he pulled out his pad to write me a ticket, I begged him to stop. He refrained from writing the ticket but stood guard until he saw the tree go on my roof, just to make sure that I was really buying a Christmas tree and not just parking illegally.

“Be careful,” warned Susie. “They grow when they get inside.” I knew she was right Sometimes they look OK out the lot, but when you put them indoors, they’re unbelievably large. 

“Tree on the roof?” asked Erich from his car seat. 

“Yes,” I assured him. “There’s a tree on the roof.” 

At home, I was hard pressed to get the mammoth tree down from the top of the car. Then I had to drag it through our brand new arbor, which wasn’t even finished yet. Susie had reminded me of their tendency to grow, but she hadn’t said anything about shrinking. I grabbed the tree by its base, closed my eyes and pulled. I didn’t see how I had done it, but in an instant, I was through the arbor, and the arbor was still in one piece. 

On the porch, I closed my eyes again and pulled with the same force of will. Again, the tree conformed to the limits of the narrow way through which it had to pass. But it could not conform to the tiny tree stand that served us so well when we hosted tiny Charlie Brown sized trees. The base of this monster was never going to fit in the old stand. So Erich and I headed out once more. We got the biggest tree stand in Friday Harbor, and stood the giant fir tree in our otherwise empty living room. Its top scraped the roof. Its side branches threatened to block entry into any other room. But it stood.

As it stood there, the tree seemed to shudder a little; it expanded and shrank, and finally settled into a shape that might match anyone’s ideal of what a Christmas tree should look like. It filled one corner of the room and radiated light, and warmth and good cheer. When Henry and his mother came home they stood starry-eyed and speechless. The boys clasped their hands together beneath their chins and as we all looked on, the tree seemed to shudder once more and for just an instant I thought I saw light, powdery snow sparkling down from its branches. 

When trimming the tree, it's important to have just the right cookies to munch on. Here are two of our favorites:

Better Butter Cookies

Basler Brunsli