Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree

Yesterday I bought my first ever Christmas tree! I was brimming with pride when I carried it home. I cuddled it closed to me because I knew this little green shrub was the first in my very own tradition. What is different from this little green shrub is that it isn't a coniferous tree but a perennial herb. My Christmas Tree is a Rosemary plant.

Now how did I go from a traditional Christmas tree to a not so traditional tree? Well, it started a couple of years ago when I read an article about alternate tree type decorations for Christmas (or Solstice). The idea was the Christmas trees aren't environmentally friendly and their artificial counterpart isn't any better. So what to do? I wasn't ready to nix the whole Christmas tree idea all together. Afterall, a Christmas without a Christmas tree is like a Birthday without a Birthday cake! While some may be there, I just wasn't ready to accept the idea.

This year I got a letter from the building that I live in saying that we aren't allowed to have any live Christmas trees in our apartments. Apparently this is a fire hazard (I could see their point if we were still putting candles in our Christmas tree but thanks to technology, we have these wonderful little electric lights). If anything, I think it would just be a bigger mess for the cleaning people to clean up when we take out our dehydrated, shriveled up, needle dropping Chritstmas trees. But I digress.

Last week, Mom called to tell me the news; this year we will not have a Christmas tree. WWHHHHAAATTTT!!!! No Christmas tree?! So what are we going to decorate?! And what will I sleep under Christmas morning?! Oh right, I haven't slept under the Christmas tree for probably 15 years. This was a tradition that my brother and I enjoyed when we were little. It was always such a treat to camp out in the living room, surrounded by presents and twinkling lights. Eventually we outgrew the tradition but I definitely haven't outgrown the memories.

So now I was faced with the reality. No Christmas tree allowed in my apartment (unless it's a fake one, but I don't want a fake one, I want a real one. It smells nicer and somehow I think it's more environmentally friendly) and now, no Christmas tree at Mom and Dads. It was hard for my overly traditional brain to wrap around. What to do? I toyed with the idea of getting a potted pine tree or something of the sort that I could decorate and then plant in the forest come spring time but then I remembered the little tree that my brother and I grew when we were little. I think it stayed in our yard for 5 years before getting too big. We dug it up and with Mom and Dads help, we set out to plant it in Queen Elizabeth Park. We found it a new home and promised it we'd come visit (which seemed like a reasonable thing to tell a tree when you're 10). When we went back to visit, it was gone. Apparently the parks keeps track of which tree is where and if a tree is planted where it shouldn't be, it gets removed. So, Christmas tree in pot idea was thrown out the window.

If I was going to get something live, I wanted it to be used after the Holiday season was over. I'm absolutely terrible at keeping any plant (having recently thrown out my plumeria 'tree' - more like stick - it died because it was too cold in my apartment. I was proud of this little plant! I brought a teenie nub home from Hawaii and tried to grow it here - knowing full well that our climate is VERY different. It worked for 3 years and it would make pretty leaves during the spring and summer, in the fall they would drop and it would hibernate and then take on the spring again. It never made flowers but it was pretty and I was semi successful at growing a tropical plant in a not so tropical environment). What resemble a Christmas tree, is useful after Christmas and easy to take care of? A rosemary plant!

So there we have it. A non traditional Christmas tree. I even went to Michaels where they have an entire section of really tiny ornaments for really tiny Christmas trees! Now it's almost perfect. It just needs to grow a little because the star on top is a little bit too big but if I keep up with watering (it needs a cup of water a day) it should look great.