Tree Time: Limbs and Loving for the Holidays

Delancey tree lot in SF

Delancey Street, the multi-state nonprofit known for Christmas tree sales, set up one of their lots near my home over Thanksgiving weekend, and naturally, I got nostalgic for big tree holidays with my family. 

I only recently found out the extent of goodwill Delancey does for housing, rehabilitation and other social services, and that it's located in several states, not just a few empty lots in San Francisco.

But I also remembered the funny chapters from my fifth novel Message of Love, where Reid gripes about the massive consumption and subsequent destruction of evergreen and spruce trees.

I no longer buy a tree, in fact, like Reid, my fictional alter ego, I refrain from purchasing trees, but do splurge on a small wreath for my apartment door.

Delancey tree lot near Market St. Safeway, SF

Seeing one of many "Charlie Brown" tiny trees does make me nostalgic for the small apartment trees I bought years ago. It also reminds me of the tiny evergreen sprout that becomes an important and metaphoric part of the growing love between Reid and Everett, the main characters in my fourth novel, Every Time I Think of You.

A Weekend in the Country

It's no secret that my last two novels include a dendrophilic love of trees, particularly with Reid Conniff, the narrator. He and his beguiling love interest Everett share their affections under the branches of trees in several scenes.

I'm thinking also of the two young men's time as counselors at a disabled kids summer camp in rural Pennsylvania (I based it on a camp where there actually was a disabled kids summer camp).

A new study has proven the obvious, that living near trees is good for your health. Too often urban dwellers forget to re-energize with nature.


"The researchers were able to compare the beneficial effect of trees in a neighborhood to other well-known demographic factors that are related to improved health, such as age and wealth. Thus, they found that “having ten more trees in a city block, on average, improves health perception in ways comparable to an increase in annual personal income of $10,000 and moving to a neighborhood with $10,000 higher median income or being seven years younger.”"

And President Obama just signed a bill designating a million acres of public land as protected from development.

According to the article, "Protecting our lands is about more than just protecting our great outdoors. These designations provide a boost to the local economies of surrounding communities by attracting visitors and generating more revenue and jobs, building on an outdoor recreation industry that already generates $646 billion in consumer spending each year."

Treed

One of my favorite holiday traditions included everything about the Christmas tree, from shopping for one, choosing a size and shape, getting it home, in through the porch door after trimming the sap-bleeding trunk and screwing in the base, and then carefully getting it into the same corner of our living room each year.

Nowadays, with a smaller and dispersed family, getting a tree for my apartment doesn't really make much sense. Our ornaments are no longer the massive multi-generation collection. In fact, the whole ritual of 'gathering 'round the tree' doesn't really work when you're single. I did check out a few very reasonably priced wreathes.