Oh Christmas Tree

We usually have an unconventional Christmas tree at our house. Perhaps it was my Grandmother's influence. She spent much of her life in a part of Kansas that didn't even have the scrub cedar that grows there now. Even when my grandparents moved to Arkansas she would often have a bare branched tree for Christmas.

It may sound to you like a Charlie Brown type of tree but let me give you the advantages. First of all, it's incentive to prune at least one of the apple trees (if you know anything about fruit trees, you can see the one in the photo is waaaaaaaaaay overdue for pruning). And no, we don't use the whole tree, just one of the branches we prune off.

A Christmas tree branch fits perfectly in our bay window. We can hang a few ornaments on it and actually see them. We can see through the bare branches so we don't loose the view. When we have sun, the sun can shine through.

John hangs lots of lights so at night it sparkles just like an evergreen would, perhaps even better as we can see ALL the lights, not just the ones on the side of the tree at which you're looking.

And for the practical side, it's free, we don't have needles dropping, and we can leave it up well into the winter if want to brighten our January days. Of course it's not green and it doesn't smell like a balsam but it works for us. Merry Christmas everyone and raise your glasses in a toast to old-fashioned Kansas Christmas trees.