I have been in the Christmas tree business since 1980, when my wife, Katherine, and I set out a few hundred pines and spruce in a mountain meadow that has been in the family since the early 1800s. That first spring, the 12-acre field looked awfully big, but in subsequent plantings we filled it and moved onto other fields, and even another state. We operated a retail tree lot in Roanoke for more than a dozen years and currently wholesale trees. Along the way, I have learned a few things about real Christmas trees, and about the people who buy them or who reject them. I like them about as much as I would a plastic turkey on Thanksgiving Day.
Real trees have character.
Each is different in shape, size, fragrance and personality. You don't get that when you pull a phony tree out of a box every year. I enjoy the idea of bringing something from the outdoors into my house, be it a tree, firewood or wild turkey. There is a special satisfaction in doing so. This is nonsense.