The Story of the Christmas Bush....

The Story of the Christmas Bush

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I saw a Norman Rockwell painting about Christmas. It just seemed so perfect. A nice happy family, celebrating Christmas in the most perfect of settings.

This was something that I longed for. We lived in a 5 family tenement house in a working class old mill town in Massachusetts. Christmas never seemed quite like Mr. Rockwell portrayed it in my home town.

Now don't get me wrong. My mother NEVER let my sister and I feel like we were poor. She would always have a couple Christmas Club saving accounts going, and with great use of layaway, spoil us rotten.We never really wanted for anything. That's not what I am talking about. It just didn't seem Norman Rockwell like, and I always wanted to feel that way. We never even had a real Christmas Tree!!! My mother had discovered that artificial trees don't make a mess, and that was that. No chance for a real tree!

I just wanted that fantasy that Norman Rockwell painted. Fantasy to me that is. I am sure that there are many people out there who have had that experience. I wanted it too!!

When I was 21-22 years old, my girlfriend got her first apartment. Behind this 2 family house were some undeveloped woods. There were lots of pine trees all throughout this area. On her first Christmas in the apartment, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I grabbed an axe, and my trusty dog, and headed out into the woods in the backyard. The light from the shortened winter day was slowly leaving the sky. I didn't think this was a problem since I didn't expect to be out there for too long. After all, there were many, many pine trees to choose from.

As I headed out all bundled up against the cold, a light snow began to fall, muting all sounds throughout the forest. It was perfect! My Normal Rockwell Christmas was starting off right!!!

I don't how many of you have decided to cut your own trees before, but let me tell you that going into the woods, rather then to a Tree Farm, is an entirely different thing. In Tree Farms, the trees are all manicured throughout the year to allow them to grow into beautiful Christmas master pieces. The trees in the forest are left to themselves. This didn't matter to me because in Norman Rockwell's world, no one bought their trees. They did exactly what I was doing!

The first thing I noticed when I approached the woods was that the trees all seemed incredibly tall. None of them seemed liked those perfect trees that people cut in the Rockwell paintings. I was disappointed.

While I decided to keep looking for that "perfect" tree, the light was slowly fading from the sky. After an hour or so, I gave up looking for the perfect tree and divided to cut one of the larger ones with a good top. My Norman Rockwell moment was slipping through my fingers.

It was my plan to trim it to size and use that as my tree. I eventually found a tree I liked and started to chop away. Wood chips were flying everywhere, while worked furiously to cut this behemoth down before the light totally faded from the sky. Eventually, with a loud crash, I felled the tree, and then cut it a length I would be able to drag back to the house. It was very, very dark when I finally got back to the house.

Once in the yard, I set to trimming it to a desirable size. Every time I cut, I would notice a flaw and be forced to cut some more. This went on for some time until I noticed the original 40+ foot tree was now a 3 foot bush. I was terribly depressed. My Norman Rockwell ideal was not going to happen after all. I didn't even bring the "tree" upstairs I was so disappointed. I wanted to go buy a good tree at one of those road side stands!

My girlfriend had other ideas and went down and brought the tree up to the apartment. She said it was a beautiful tree and she wanted to keep it.  I told her it was a Christmas Bush and it should be thrown back into the forest. I was still disappointed, so while she decorated the Christmas Bush, I enjoyed a couple of cocktails to lighten my mood. Once she was done, it really didn't look that bad! In fact, I decided to lay under the branches and proclaim that I was her Christmas Present.While I was originally very disappointed, this is one of my favorite Christmas memories now. And while I don't go into the forest to cut my own, I do still go to a Tree Farm for a real tree. My kids have never had an artificial tree and always look forward to when we go to the farm.

As I have grown older, I have come to realize that Norman Rockwell did not paint reality, he painted an ideal. The perfect Christmas is not what we see in a painting, it's what we make of it. Seeing my son or daughter dragging our tree to the car is the perfect Christmas ideal for me. I am happy and proud to know that I have a created a tradition that I am sure they will continue with their own families when they grow up.

 However you celebrate, make it your own. Merry Christmas everyone!!!! Thank you for reading!