Holiday Tree Spirit
What is sustainability to the holiday tree?
Last December I decided I would get a small living tree for our holiday season. I found the perfect candidate at a Bonsai garden en route to Lake Erie.
We named our tree Olaf. He is a Norfolk Island pine. We’ve had him for a year now. I keep him in the room with our cockatiels, which is fitting, since they’re all originally from the same tropical region of the world.
I learned that Norfolk Island pines can get pretty tall as indoor plants (3 to 8 feet). While this makes it a nice choice for a long term holiday tree, it also means I will need to make more space for Ollie as the years go by.
Why do I have a long term holiday tree? This has all come about because I refuse to participate in the tradition associated with the Christmas holiday of chopping down a tree to put indoors and decorate. To me, this is the pinnacle of exploitative mass throw-away consumption (apologies if this offends you, I know folks are particular about their holiday trees).
I simply will not kill a tree so we can enjoy it’s dead company for a month to celebrate Jesus. It’s just not what Jesus would do, I am sure.
A friend of mine told me that a long time ago, it wasn’t a whole tree that was cut down. It was only the top of the tree, which…
