We did the unthinkable this year. We bought a cut Christmas tree instead of a living one.

We didn’t plan it that way. Monday after school the kids and I cruised the local nurseries looking for our perfect tree: a smallish spruce or fir that we could repot into The Christmas Planter and reuse for two or three years. But the economy has been brutal on local businesses, and the pickings were slim; mostly long-needled pines topiaried into cone-shapes (bleah) or blue spruces (am I the only one who thinks that color is all wrong for Christmas and clashes with the decorations?). But we did find this pretty thing:

Cons: No roots. No planting outside. Pros: $60–$90 cheaper than a comparable living tree. It fit in my car, more or less. About 100 lbs lighter than it would have been attached to a pot full of soil. Fills the whole house with the fresh scent of sap oozing out of its poor severed stump. And after Christmas — firewood!

Okay, so I’m not quite comfortable with the whole dead-tree thing. But I think this year it was a good choice for us.

The tree-decorating custom in our house is that I put the lights on while the kids are at school, and then they get to hang the ornaments on it when they get home. I mention this to explain why our tree looks as though it was decorated by children. It was, and I love it that way.

Merry Christmas, everyone!