Excerpt
The Yuletide seems to come earlier and earlier every year. We can hardly get through Halloween anymore before we are greeted at department stores by tinsel and red ribbon bedecked plastic pine boughs letting us know, “It is never too early to start shopping!” A few of us, however, still believe Christmas has not really arrived until that first pine-scented whiff hits our noses. Unfortunately, these days I cannot fully appreciate that delicious smell without feeling a twinge of guilt. Rationalizing cutting thousands of trees every year just to adorn the center of my holiday ritual is not easy. One way to avoid this dilemma would be to buy a live, potted Christmas tree and plant it after the New Year. The potted trees, while beautiful and pine-scented, lack the stature needed to fill some physical spaces. The tree lighting at New York City's Rockefeller Center probably would not attract as much attention with a four-foot tree. Nor are live beauties a viable option for an apartment dweller. How then can one have their scent-sational Christmas tree without feeling like some kind of environmental raider? The town of Babylon on Long Island …
Footnotes
- Copyright 1997 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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