The Christmas Tree Hunt-City Style

Winter Christmas is way different to the Summer Christmases I grew up with. As a child and young adult I couldn’t really relate to all the Christmas cards and images of snow and sitting by the fire. For us in the southern hemisphere, Christmas is a time for the beach and outdoor Carols by Candlelight and Christmas Day in a family backyard with a pool or the sprinklers going. So the first year we came here and it was -17 celcius with 14 inches of snow on the ground, it was a surprise!

But over the years we’ve adjusted and we always hope for Christmas snow, we’ve gone to the Christmas tree farms, found the perfect tree, cut it down and brought it home, we’ve done the hot chocolate and hayride thing. It’s a fun day out and we alway love doing it but for the last few years, since we no longer have a car, trekking to Connecticut to the Christmas tree farm to chop down a tree is not really cost effective because by the time you hire a car, drive and return home you’ve spent 300 bucks to retrieve a $50 tree. We still do it occasionally for the fun but this year we opted for a city Christmas tree hunt.

We are so organised this year, everything is done. We’re amazed at ourselves and so 2 weeks earlier than we’d normally do it, we decided to get our tree. We have our favourite place to go. It’s the Christmas tree lot at Stranger’s Gate on 106 in Central Park but they weren’t there yet. I guess they set up later than 2 weeks before. They’ve aways been there when we needed our tree. But we’ve always gotten our tree the last weekend before Christmas and so we had to go in search of another Christmas tree stand.

How do you find a Christmas tree stand? It’s not like you can google it, or map it on your smart phone. You have to just roam the streets and find some guy selling chopped down trees. But this is New York and it didn’t take us long to find several stands on Broadway. The kids chose. We got a slightly smaller tree this year because the spot is a little smaller. While The King was inside paying we saw this…

There’s no end to the interesting sites you’ll see wandering this great city. I suppose we were a site to others, lugging our freshly purchased tree  home with the snow falling all around.

But that’s how you hunt a city Christmas tree.

I really love this time of year!

Comments 14

  2. Man, you really made me miss my home state. Your pictures make me so homesick but I thank you for letting me share your experience through pictures! You’re gonna show us pictures of the tree all decked out right?

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

  3. I’ve always wanted to live in the city but never really thought about how you would find a tree. We typically drive 10 miles down the road to a tree farm and chop one down ourselves. How far did you have to carry it?

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author

  4. You made me home sick for my NYC days!! I always loved getting a tree and taking it home to my our apartment. Love the pictures, looks like you got a great one!!! Wishing you and your family a great holiday!!

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author

  6. THANK YOU! I was just wondering the other day how you city people do that. I see you need two medium-sized children to help carry the tree. Interesting…

    Reply
    1. Post
      Author
    1. Post
      Author

      Part of the Christmas thing for me is the smell.Brings back childhood memories. It’s not Christmas without it. Hubs would totally have an artificial tree. It’s me who insists on live.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *