Plastic? Bah, humbug, say natural tree devotees
By John Gever
For the Dominion Post
Light snow was falling as Bill King welcomed a visitor to his Preston County farm. A thermometer read 25 degrees.
"I don't like it this cold," he said.
Not what you'd expect from a man who's been farming Christmas trees for more than 60 years.
But like it or not, King puts up with the cold every year. So do the other Christmas tree growers in the area, along with the dozens of commercial and charity workers who sell pre-cut trees.
And so do thousands of area families for whom it wouldn't be Christmas without a real spruce, fir or pine tree to decorate.
If that means discomfort, so be it. Ask Brenda Cappellini of Suncrest.
"My feet are getting cold," she laughed to her daughter, Regina, one recent evening as as they reviewed the inventory on a Beechurst Avenue tree lot. Rain and snow blew sharply through the lot, run each year by the Suncrest Kiwanis club. Cappellini's main protection was a sleek leather jacket.
"We have three teenagers," she explained, rubbing her hands and stamping her feet. "They said we're not allowed to get a fake tree until they move out."
Cappellini said her family has bought its tree at the Kiwanis lot annually for the past 22 years. But the tradition actually goes back to the 16th century.
Around that time, townspeople in what is now Germany began bringing trees into their homes and decorating them with candles, wax and gingerbread figures.
Martin Luther, the man who started Protestantism in 1517, sometimes gets credit for the first Christmas tree. As the story goes, he was walking in a fir forest, looking at the stars shining through the boughs, and was reminded of the Star of Bethlehem. He felt inspired to cut a small tree, bring it into his house and place candles among the branches.
However, most scholars believe the practice probably evolved gradually from pagan and early Christian rituals. Trees such as spruces, firs and pines, which stay green through the harshest winters, were thought to be blessed. For centuries before Luther's time, it was a mid-winter tradition to decorate houses with evergreen branches.
Whatever its origins, the Christmas tree custom eventually spread to other countries, so that by the mid-1800s, trees could be found in Christian homes throughout Europe and North America.
Ironically, Germans are also credited with inventing the artificial Christmas tree toward the end of the 19th century. The first ersatz trees were made of wire and feathers painted green.
Now, of course, they're made of more durable materials, chiefly plastic, and their national popularity has outpaced that of natural trees.
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, which represents natural tree growers, more than twice as many U.S. families display artificial trees versus the real kind.
In 1989, according to the group's figures, the nation was divided equally between real and artificial trees. Since then, the number of homes with natural Christmas trees has dropped 37 percent, while those with artificial trees has risen by half.
NCTA estimates that about 25 million households will buy a natural tree this season. Close to 60 million will display an artificial tree.
The fastest growth has been in families with no Christmas tree at all, the group reports. In 2002, treeless families were 32 percent of all households, up from 21 percent in 1989. NCTA blames a growing aversion to "the hustle and bustle of a condensed holiday season." Immigration from Asia, the Middle East and other regions without a Christmas tree tradition may contribute as well.
But, national trends notwithstanding, local Christmas tree vendors say their sales have stayed remarkably steady.
Jim McClung, a Suncrest Kiwanis member manning the group's Beechurst lot, said sales so far in 2003 have been "slightly better than last year." Most of their
The Kiwanis club, as well as the Westover Lions who run a similar operation on Fairmont, generally sell the same number of trees from year to year. The main variable is how quickly they sell out.
Sales typically begin the weekend after Thanksgiving. McClung said his group hoped to sell their stock in two weeks, which is what happened in 2002.
A similar story is told statewide.
Ed Grafton, president of the West Virginia Christmas Tree Growers Association, said that sales as well as the number of growers has changed little in recent years. "It's remaining pretty stable," he said.
Bill King may have the longest perspective of anyone now living. Now 78, the owner (with his wife Janet) of King's Trees in Bruceton Mills planted his first trees in 1940. He began selling them in 1947, at $2 apiece, from the back of a Jeep.
Not much is different now, he said, except for the technology he uses to keep his trees sized and shaped the way people like them. And, of course, for the prices, which now start at about $20 for an average tree.
King has about 7,000 trees on his 300-acre property. Each one has to be trimmed each year to maintain the right profile.
He keeps a scrapbook bulging with photos from the 1960s. One shows swarms of local teenage boys with hand clippers. Another shows King with a motorized trimmer, a gas engine strapped to his back. To cut the grass between trees, he had a push mower about 18 inches wide.
King now has a device like an oversized Weedeater, but with metal blades, that lets him shape a tree in a few seconds. That and other modern tools let him and his two sons manage roughly 7,000 trees.
He said he loves being in nature, but admitted that the cold and other physical stresses had started to wear on his vintage 1925 body. This year "could be" the last year he runs the tree farm, he said, emphasizing "could."
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