Dear Editor,

    Christmas time is my favorite time of the year. I love the music, the decorations, the giving atmosphere, and especially my family Christmas tree. Every year my mother buys me and all my sisters a new ornament to hang on our tree. For the past three Christmases, my family has gone out and purchased  a live tree. That definitely beats going down to the basement and getting a tree out of a box.

    The past three years we have gone to Oakland Nursery in Dublin to buy our Christmas tree. They have a great selection of trees, ranging from short and fat to tall and skinny and even a few perfect Charlie Brown Christmas trees. Once we have all agreed on the Christmas tree, we give the tree a name, strap it to the car and then we go eat pizza. This has become a tradition of my family’s, and it is by far one of my favorites.

    I think getting a real Christmas tree is a great way to spend time with your family. However, there are plenty of downfalls when it comes to bringing a real, dead, tree into your house. We decorate our tree with strands of lights, but we can never have those lights left on for an entire day. At night we turn them off and whenever we all leave the house, the lights must be unplugged. The tree dries out quickly; therefore, it could catch fire very easily. University of Maryland engineering student, Issac Leventon, told WJLA-TV that there will be “between 250 and 300 [house fires] per year and when they do happen, they’re 3.5 times as deadly as a regular house fire.” On average, 22 people are injured or killed in a house fire caused by a Christmas tree. Having a real Christmas tree is a lot of responsibility to make sure the holiday season doesn’t end in a tragedy. The tree must be watered two to three times a day and just like my family does, the lights on the tree should never be left on for more than 12 hours at a time.

    The worst part about having a live tree, other than if your house catches on fire, is the mess it makes. Every time someone touches the tree or one of my cats climbs up in it, several pine needles fall off. The floor is completely covered with needles once Christmas time is over, and it is time to take the tree outside. It sure is a good thing the needles are easy to sweep up.

    Even though there may be some more cons than pros to having a live Christmas tree, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I look forward to my family’s Christmas tree tradition every year.

Sincerely,

Tori Walker