We’ve have our Christmas tree!
Christmas tree
On a was a murky, mizzling December afternoon when we set off to our regular Yorkshire Christmas tree grower. Despite the dreary weather, the farmyard was full of people, cheerfully battling to fit oversized Christmas trees into, or onto, their cars.
As usual, we took far too long choosing. From hundreds of perfectly good Christmas trees, we had to find the one that was just right for us. It had to be the right height, the right bushiness, have the right smell – and just be right.
As usual, the farm yard looked, and smelled, magical. Coloured lights strung up in the big trees cast a warm glow over a veritable forest of fresh, spicy-sharp smelling Christmas trees. The barn was festooned with wreaths and garlands, and happy families cheerfully struggled to compress their slightly-too big trees into family cars.
Everyone was smiling and happy. Mud, sharp needles, queues, dark, cold, recession? No-one cared. We were all getting our Christmas trees, ready to celebrate a festival as old as time. A festival that has lived through countless generations, outlasted wars, Governments, economic crises, famine and plague.
Really, if Christmas didn’t already exist, we’d have to invent it.