Blue Ridge Country November/December 2023 - 8

Christmas Trees and Holly Branches
A New Family Tradition is Born
The grandsons' tree selection must pass the E-mama test. Somehow, it always does.
TEXT AND PHOTO BY BRUCE INGRAM | PHOTO STYLING BY JANETTE SPENCER
T
he Blue Ridge Mountains are
home to numerous Christmas
tree
farms where perfectly
sculpted white pines and spruces adorn
the highlands. As popular and beautiful
as these trees are, Elaine and I have
never purchased one.
After we moved to our Botetourt
County, Virginia, land in 1989, we
bought a series of live white pines for
Christmas trees. After the holidays concluded,
we planted them on our land. It
was a joy to see, say, our tree for 1992,
15 feet taller a decade later. But for the
last six years, we've deployed only Virginia
pines or red cedars (two of the
scrawniest and ill-shaped evergreens
imaginable) as Christmas trees.
That's because for those most recent
holiday seasons, our grandsons Sam
and Eli (ages 10 and eight, respectively)
have been in charge of selecting a tree.
Every year in mid-December, the boys
and I ramble across our 38 acres in
search of what they believe will make
the
perfect Christmas tree. Indeed,
for generations many rural folks have
followed the same tradition in these
mountains. After all, how could any
store-bought tree compare to one originating
from a family's own woodlot.
Even though, as Elaine says, " There
have been years when the tree had only
two usable branches, and the boys used
them for every decoration, a conga line
of Christmas ornaments. "
After much discussion and sometimes
a few arguments, Sam and Eli
have to jointly agree on a tree for them
to cut down with loppers. Then we
haul the tree back to the house where
Elaine has to decree whether the pine
or
cedar meets her expectations...
which, of course, she always does-no
matter how scraggly the thing is.
This past December, though, our annual
excursion did not unfold smoothly...and
it was all my fault. As usual,
Sam and Eli came running across the
hollow where they live with their parents...
Sam breathlessly yelling that
he had earlier found the perfect tree.
My older grandson soon showed me
a five-foot-tall red cedar, characterized
by its barren limbs, crooked trunk and
brown, droopy needles.
When I agreed with Sam about the
tree's charms, he went to our garage to
retrieve loppers. Throughout the felling
and shaping of the future yule-time
centerpiece, Eli remained
strangely
silent. But when his brother left with
Elaine to position the newly crowned
Christmas tree in the kitchen doorway
(where tradition demands that it should
always reside) and to search the garage
for decorations, Eli expressed his sense
of betrayal and the general unfairness
" I didn't get to help pick a tree this year, " he sniffled.
" Sam always gets his way. And his tree is ugly. "
8 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
of being the younger sibling.
" I didn't get to help pick a tree this
year, " he sniffled. " Sam always gets his
way. And his tree is ugly. "
Elaine and I have learned that a
cardinal rule for grandparents is to always
treat grandchildren equally, and
I had broken that statute. Pondering
how to make things right, I spontaneously
came up with a solution.
" E-mama [their name for Elaine]
wants holly decorations all over the
house this Christmas, " I said. " Would
you mind being totally in charge of
finding holly branches and cutting
them off for her? "
" Yessss! " Eli instantly responded,
his countenance brightening, and off
we went scouring our woodlot for
holly trees. A half hour later, laden
with branches, we entered Elaine's
kitchen where I pre-empted my wife's
questioning about what that greenery
was for by announcing: " E-mama,
Eli got those holly branches that you
so much wanted. "
We were also just in time for Eli to
help Sam decorate the newly christened
Christmas tree. Elaine, sensing somehow
that her husband had committed
some kind of snafu (why does she always
assume that?) deftly divided decorations
between the boys and proclaimed that it
was Eli's turn to positon the star crowning
the cedar, which no longer looked
so forlorn. She added that later the boys
would have to help her craft holly arrangements.
And so a new family tradition
came into existence.
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Blue Ridge Country November/December 2023

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