Every year when we lived on the farm we went out and found a cedar tree to serve as our Christmas tree. Although I have adapted to other kinds of Christmas trees, I still have a special place in my heart for the cedar tree at Christmas time. With us at home, I suppose having a cedar tree was the practical and natural choice. That was the kind of evergreen tree that grew on our farm.
We didn’t have spruces or firs, we had cedars, growing on the hillsides and in the fence rows. Our cedars weren’t exactly the standard Christmas tree shape, which I take to be conelike; wide at the bottom and sloping straight to the peak from each side. Ourstended to be shaped more like an upside-down heart, curving up from the sides, and with a less prominent top. Usually we had a single stem at the top, just barely strong enough to hold astar or an angel.
I think one reason I liked our cedar Christmas tree was that I enjoyed going out to choose it, and then cutting it, loading it and bringing it in to the house.
We usually had several trees to choose from, so we did a lot of comparing, picking personal favorites, finally choosing a tree that we could agree on. As I recall it, we rarely found “the perfect tree.” Usually something was not quite as fine as we thought it could be. Our tree might have a flat side, or a full side and a thin side; the color might be inconsistent, or the shape might be too round at the top. Cedars which grow near other trees tend to have uneven shapes.
Sometimes the trunk of our tree was not perfectly straight.
We would lean it a little to make it look as straight as possible. But we didn’t worry much about perfect shape, we just wanted it to look Christmasy.
Another reason that I like cedar Christmas trees is that they smell right for a Christmas tree. To me the scent of the tree is part of the festivity. I enjoy that cedar aroma. When we did the saw-cut to square the base of the trunk and set our tree’s height, the sawing caused the scent of cedar to fill the living room, and it would linger for days. Early on we didn’t have a base that kept the tree standing in water, but we did keep the tree in a bucket of wateruntil the time came to set it in place and decorate it for Christmas.
Today we don’t have nearly as many cedar trees growing on the farm as we once did.
Today’sfarm practices are more specialized, and more of the land is cleared. Most of the property is used for grazing cattle and for hay crops, and there are fewer fenced fields as compared to the early days. Tractor-operated bush hogs tend to keep down sprouts and bushes and weeds, so that things like cedar trees don’t stay around long.
In the old days of general farming, it was more common for some areas to be covered with vines and brush, with a wide variety of vegetation, blackberries, gooseberries, daisies and flowering weeds, sassafras trees, hickory trees, mulberry trees, persimmons, toad stools, and so on.
There would also be snakes and lizards and beetles and thousand-legs (as we called them). Cedar trees tend to grow where the machinery doesn’t go.
I know that sometimes people prefer to use a storebought tree, because bringing in a live tree means cutting down a tree. I’m thinking, though, that cedar trees are very renewable. I see harvesting them for Christmas as similar to cutting hay from the fields, which means cutting down growing grass or legumes. The cedars can be turned into fish habitat after Christmas. And, there will be a new crop of trees next year.
I don’t see a tree as necessary for Christmas, we could celebrate Christmas without it. But, the evergreen tree carries a symbolism of everlasting life that seems to fit well with celebrating Christmas. The Christmas tree originated among pre-Christian peoples, who when they converted to Christ wanted to adapt their traditional evergreen tree to honor Christ the Lord. I like to see the Christmas tree with items that are more than tinsel and bright lights and trinkets; I like to see angels and stars and shepherds and wise men, and sheep and cattle like those that surrounded the manger which was Jesus’ bed. We used to hang some of the Christmas cards we received in our tree as decorations.
I also like to see a manger scene under the tree along with the presents to share.
On the farm, a manger is a furnishing in the barn, used to feed cattle. It is not sweet or beautiful, it is quite plain and simple.
But Christmas is about the humble birth of the Christ child, and God can do marvelous things with mangers.
◊◊◊
Editor’s note: Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history.
He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by email at joe369@centurytel.
net, or call 621-1621.
Community, Pages 5 on 12/07/2011