My parents favored spruce for their Christmas trees. Perhaps this came from my father’s family living for many years in Colorado where spruce trees grow. My wife and I have carried on the tradition. The branches and needles easily lend themselves to lights to strings of lights, ornaments, and icicles. Their scent fills the room and, as I think I wrote elsewhere, conjures up a near-living presence from the tree in the living room.

One year, my wife and I bought a live blue spruce with the seemingly one-ton root ball for our Georgia home. When we took down our decorations on January 6th, we planted the tree in a shady spot in the yard. To our surprise, it flourished there perhaps because I often sprayed it with water or because conditions were accidentally right many miles from its high country range.

When we moved away, the tree was taller than the house. I’ve often wondered if subsequent residents have wondered how a spruce was growing in a Georgia yard.

Now we use an artificial tree to save money. It’s a Spruce, of course.

–Malcolm