It was late in the afternoon, bitterly cold, and storm clouds threatened snow when they reached the tree farm. By the time Ryan, his wife Beth, and their two kids had exited their SUV, large snowflakes had started to fall. “Darn, it wasn’t supposed to snow until late tonight,” he said.
They hurried into the barn that doubled as the farm’s office and work area where they received a small bow saw. Then they headed back outside to board the next available tractor-pulled wagon. Soon they were sitting on strawbales and heading down a long dirt lane between rows of young trees. Another family sat on bales along the opposite side of the wagon. The frozen ground was starting to turn white with a thin covering of snow when a gust of wind picked much of it up and swirled it around.
“I’m cold,” their daughter Emily said. “I want to go home.”
“We just got here to get a Christmas Tree, it’ll be fun,” Beth said.
“Yeah Emy, and I get to cut the tree down,” said their older daughter, Laura.
Snow was piling up on their shoulders, laps, and hats by the time the wagon reached a field of larger trees. The driver turned onto a rougher lane that headed up a hill between the rows. Soon the man stopped the tractor, and the two families climbed down from the wagon to cut their trees.
“I’m too cold to walk,” Emily complained. “I want to go back to the car.”
“Now Emily, we came all this way to get a tree, and you need to help us pick it out,” Ryan said.
“No, I want to go home now,” Emily screamed as a large gust of wind driven snow hit her in the face.
“We better make this fast, the snow and wind are picking up, and it is really cold,” Beth said.
Laura led them up the hill and soon said, “How about this one,” pointing to an attractive looking tree.
Ryan looked it over and said, “No, the trunk is too curved. It won’t work.” He looked back at the wagon and saw that the members of the other family were already helping the worker load a tree onto it.
They continued further up the hill. Their feet started to slip in the deepening snow. Laura and Beth alternated in pointing out candidates, but Ryan continued to find their faults. Emily was starting to whimper and cry.
“I think everyone in that other family is giving us bad looks,” Beth said.
Eventually they agreed on a tree and Laura said, “I want to cut it down.”
“Well ok but you need to saw it close to the ground, and straight.” Her father cautioned.
Laura grabbed the saw from Ryan and started to work her way under the lower branches. When she realized that she would have to lay on her belly in the fresh snow, she said, “I don’t want to do it. It’s too cold.”
Ryan took over and after struggling for a while with the saw and saying some improper words in front of his girls. He eventually got the tree down and then the driver pulled up with the wagon and loaded the tree onto it.
When they got back to the barn, workers loaded the Christmas tree on top of their vehicle and then they had a long slow drive home on snow covered roads. Once there Ryan said, “This was a holiday tradition.” He glanced around, wiped his boot on the rug. “After what happened this year, it’s not anymore. We are getting one of those fake trees next year.”