O Christmas Tree: Get Those Lovely Branches in Town
NEIRAD enilno edition
In December, families all across Darien begin preparing for the most expensive holiday in the country: Christmas. One of the many things most celebrating families buy before Dec. 25 is a Christmas tree. While many approach this task traveling under 30 minutes to one of many Christmas tree farms in the area, others save time and money by purchasing a plastic or blow-up tree, and keeping that one for several years. There are many places where people go to buy Christmas trees of different sorts.
Sophomore twins Mike and Matt Cortright go to a different tree farm each December. Struggling to recall the name of the family's most recently visited tree farm, Mike said, "I think it was Nielsen's, or something like that." Nielsen's Florist and Garden shop in Darien is a popular stop for trees along with other assorted Christmas plants, flowers, and wreaths. The store sells flowers of all kinds year round, but Nielsen's begins to focus on holiday-related items as early as the first days of November, when it posts information about its holiday services on the Nielsen’s homepage, www.nielsensflorist.net.
As of mid-November Nielsen's had no tree prices set for the holiday season, but the store mentioned that its price for an eight to nine foot Simon Pearce tree in 2009 was somewhere in between $150 and $175.
Nielsen's isn't the only place where Christmas trees are available. Places such as Noroton Heights Fire Department in Darien, Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, and many others are also hotspots to get Christmas trees. Stew’s prices for an eight to nine foot Douglas Fir tree are set for just $49.99 this winter, a significantly lower cost than Nielsen's Simon Pearce trees.
However, not everybody gets a brand new tree every year. Sophomore twins Chris and Brandon Hecq drive down to their family's apartment in Florida for the holidays. This sunny sojourn makes buying a tree difficult. Chris said that his family simply has a plastic Christmas tree that it puts up once it gets to Florida in December.
Sophomore Chris Briley has a plastic tree as well, despite staying in Darien for many holiday breaks. If somebody is looking for something much easier to buy, bring home, set up, and maintain than a real tree, he or she need look no further than plastic trees.
The tradition of slashing down tree trunks every year is one long held by many Christmas-celebrators. The practice is followed by the buying of presents, which will reside under the tree, plastic or fresh from the farm. But trees do not make a Christmas, and no matter where you go, the experience won't change.
