Looking for Christmas Trees

 I drove to Lowe’s Hardware for a

...

When I walked in the parking lot tent, there was no attendant, tree hauler or even customers. Dying Poinsettias were shedding their brown leaves next to a sign that offered 50% off on the plants. Finally an older Black woman wandered in with a shopping cart. She was picking through the rows of Poinsettias and sending showers of dead leaves to the ground. I asked the discount shopper ‘where are all the people, how do you pay for a tree, how do you bag one up?’ She shrugged her shoulders and said I could pay in the garden section. So I grabbed a small tree that didn’t look completely dead, bagged it, and threw it in a shopping cart.

Shopping for a

...alone three days before Christmas in an abandoned tent with dying plants and discount signs will put you in an existential mood. I thought about all the times I joined my dad on his Christmas tree adventures. Listening to holiday music, haggling over prices, boisterous crowds. That’s all gone now. I went to the garden section and a customer was yelling at an indifferent teenage cashier. I rolled up with my rapidly shedding tree and grabbed the last tree stand as well as 2 boxes of lights from shelves that were picked clean. Ugh I should’ve done this earlier. Another customer looked at my dry tree and offered a suggestion because ‘she’s from New York,’ and loudly proclaimed that a few times: put the base of the tree in warm water for 10-15 min. She said when a tree is cut from its roots the sap inside hardens and forms a seal around the bottom, like a scab. So if you just put in cold water it never penetrates the hard shell. Warm water breaks up the hard protective shell. Hmmm…this feels like a holiday metaphor. I brought the tree back to my mom’s house. She wanted it in traditional spot near the door. We put warm water in, wrapped the base and swept up the needles. She took out an old angel and spread the lights across the branches. I’ll go back and get ornaments.

Even though there is no soil maybe the finds a second brief life in the family room. Warm water for the holidays you hard saps!