Smells Like Christmas


The pickings were slim and the trees unimpressive, and yet I was incredibly happy to be looking over the “fresh cut” pines in the Lowe’s parking lot one night earlier this week. I got it in my head somehow that this year I’ll have a real Christmas tree instead of putting up the hand-me-down artificial one I’ve been using.

My fake tree has been perfect for my stage of life: it’s the right size, the right price (free), and most of the lights work most of the time. The presents look nice underneath it. By all accounts, it works. But the smell of the real trees in the open-walled tent that night transformed my wish for a real tree from a whimsical one-off into something much more tender.

I wasn’t prepared for how the scent of the pines would conjure up the memories of searching for the right tree as a family. Every year until I was about 20 years old, we would make the pilgrimage to various Christmas tree lots to find the tree. We always bought a noble fir, the tallest one that could fit in our living room. Branches needed to be spaced just right, tops should be sturdy enough to support the star. This was a process to find what would become the crowning jewel of our home for the season.

As a kid, it drove me crazy how long it could take. Was there really not one nice tree at the first Home Depot we went to? It felt rare to strike gold at the first store. But as I think back on it, it was a fun tradition of scouring the stalls trying to find a tree of the right shape and size, hands sticky from moving trees around the piles after Mom would say, “I think I want to see that one in the back,” or “Hold that one straight for me. Now turn it around.”

I didn’t choose a tree at Lowe’s this week, even though the smell was incredibly tempting. “We’re getting 180 more trees tomorrow,” the clerk told me. That wasn’t why I left treeless. A new tradition might be forming for us: my siblings and I want to take a trip to cut down our own trees and bring them home. I hope it works out and is a good experience. But even if this is a one time outing, I’m looking forward to the pine scent in my house to remind me of the many positive Christmas memories I have from home.

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