Posted by Parent, a resident of the Palo Verde neighborhood, on Dec 21, 2006 at 10:26 am

In our house it is the traditions that are important, not the tree. We have a very cheap tree bought the first year we were married at a store going out of business with some tacky ornaments (money was crucial then). Each year since then we say we will throw it out and buy a tasteful artificial tree, but our children don't want to. They associate the bent top, some of the tacky decorations, and the fact that the tree lives in a battered box in a corner of our garage, as part of Christmas. There is a security that Christmas will happen again as we carefully pack up in January and ask everyone "what they remembered most" about the Christmas just passed. Then we talk about what is going to happen in the coming year before the tree comes out again, everyone will be a year older, new grade at school, summer fun, etc. Sometimes, they write a note and put it into the tree box so that they can see what they were anticipating and laugh about it when they see it again next December. It seems to "close" Christmas nicely and it lets the little ones know that Christmas will come again.

Another thing we do is to put our cards in a box near the table and every day at dinner time we take out one or two cards and talk about our memories of that family. Sometimes it is someone the kids know and we can laugh together about memories with them. Other times it is people that the kids don't know, old college friends of ours or something, and we spend time telling the kids stories of what we did with them. It is something else that has become quite important to them as an after Christmas tradition. To try and do this on the run up to Christmas when cards come in loads at a time is too much, but letting it trickle through January is much more fun.

Posted by Mike, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Dec 24, 2006 at 1:32 pm

We still get a real tree each year. Some of us, like me for instance, have a hard time adjusting to updated and more convenient things. I still use logs in the fireplace instead of gas.

Getting a real tree is an important tradition for us. The individual differences in trees that mark them as real, the smell of fresh evergreen and the supple branches all contribute to the experience. For me getting the tree and decorating it is basically like running a retrospective video of happy childhood Christmas past and the very special memories they invoke.

We do buy our tree from the Sea Scouts lot on El Camino in Palo Alto. Even though their prices are not low, we also know the money is going to a good cause.

Merry Christmas!

Posted by Robert, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Dec 26, 2006 at 7:59 pm

Fake tree! Up in 8 min.- down in 6 min. Can't tell it is fake! Now if I can get the outside lights up in 20 min.

Posted by D Randolph, a resident of the Palo Alto Hills neighborhood, on May 2, 2007 at 12:44 pm

Web Link">Fake Tree are better for cost, maintenance and they look good too