Gizmo be Cheap... or Bah Humbug.

[gizamo]

$55 bucks for a Christmas Tree....! You gotta be out of your mind....

Went out and hacked down my own on the back Forty...dragged it home about a half mile through the woods and presented it to the bride.... Who immediately muttered something under her breath, I only caught the last few words she sputtered.

Sooo..... What's a Charlie Brown Tree?

[ohiococonut]

Originally Posted by gizamo

Sooo..... What's a Charlie Brown Tree?

HAHAHAHAHA! LMAO!

It's a knarley old stick of a tree. Don't feel too bad, you probably did good putting it out of it's misery

[imashooter2]

If the question was serious, there was an animated Christmas movie featuring the Snoopy comic strip characters in which Charlie Brown procured the most pathetic and scraggly tree in all the land. Once decorated and shown love, the scraggly tree turned out to be spectacular.

But that was a movie. In real life, scraggly trees when decorated look like scraggly trees with decorations.

[sipowicz]

Don't ask me...pancakes are 19 bucks down here and even with the exchange rate, and no tax...it comes out to about $15 US....

[Pondhill]

He he, that's just being a frugal yankee as my dad would say. When we would go to northern maine deer hunting he would spend as much time hunting a christmas tree to bring home as hunting deer.

[woodsltc]

Giz, ya just have to figure out what your priorities are....Marital Biss or Saving $$.

Don

[TACC1]

My FIL was allowed o pick and cut down a tree, once. It had
a slight curve in the trunk. That was 30 years ago, and he still
gets grief for it.
Like woodsltc said, "marital bliss or $$". Your choice. TACC1

[Old 44 Guy]

Sip; You bloody well not complain till you leave the Great Down Under. They may find a way to tax you on your statement.

[geoff40]

Giz
$55? Sheesh, it was 20 years go I saw real trees going for $75 to 100 in places like NYC or Washington DC.
But I also well recall paying $6 back then for well grown and manicured Scotch pines from a local. Those of us up here in this neck of the woods are spoiled when it comes to trees.

[fiasconva]

You're lucky you didn't end up with a $200 trespass fee plus court costs, etc. That's the kinda luck I have.

[venomballistics]

last year and the year prior my late fall visits to WI I ended up stuffing piles of wreaths and trees into my car for the journey to Omaha.
Last year I took possession of my Mustang and it too was loaded with evergreen. So now I skip the fall visit home so as to keep the pitch outta my cruising vessels

[jimmyj]

You did right!
$55.00 buys a lot of ammo or reloading supplies.
As an after thought, wait until December 26 and Christmas Trees will be a lot cheaper.

[Onomea]

When I was a boy, we used to make quite a ritual of it. The family trooping after my dad into the woods to choose a tree, and then chopping it down, dragging it back home, getting it onto a stand, and then decorating it. It was pretty exciting as a kid.

[Pete99004]

Giz - ya just gotta tell the little woman that anyone can go out and BUY a tree...you drove out to no man's land and after many hours locating the perfect tree you laboriously removed it from it's growing place and slowly drug it uphill for miles just so you could have a tree that was special for her. One of a kind fresher than fresh tree that was taken with much labor, love and kind thoughts for her, your special woman - after all, it's the thought that counts, not the flash or the price!

Pete

[gizamo]

Pete,

I took your advice and all I can recall after my ears stopped bleeding and my begging " please make it stop was two words.

Queer and cheap....

Might have been the reverse order.....

[RIDE-RED 350r]

The lot we cut our trees at is nice farm where they even give customers a ride to the tree lot in a large wagon hooked to a farm tractor....... Tree price, $3 per foot...Paid $18 for my tree this year.. I'm glad I live in the sticks!

[CJKarl]

We just hiked up to and old field on some friends land and cut a small cedar, our favorite Christmas tree. No where near a "perfect" tree to most. But we love them, lots of character.

[m657]

We get ours from a local church group....price went up this year....really full & nice Nobel Fir 6' tall for $7.

Living near the Orygun Outback has advantages.

[OK Hog Shooter]

Just tell the missus it's a period correct tree.

[A10]

Let her know you didn't spend the money so you could afford to get her a better Christmas Present!

[CAJUNLAWYER]

34.95 Fraser at Lowes-quick cheap and I'm done with it.
Last time (more accurately the ONLY time) I cut down a tree we took the kids when they were about 6-7 to some "Uncle Santa Nick's Kris Cringle happy elves Christmas tree farm" . (My wife's idea). Ground was soggy wet, it was misting-some toothless stinky old drunk with a few day's stubble smoking a cigarette wearing an elf hat carrying around a chain saw. Santa was sitting on the porch at the "toy shop" smoking a swisher sweet and taking the money. Wound up with a nasty scotch pine with a crooked trunk full of fire ants and mud .
There were no other trees to be had anywhere around, so it was this one or nothing-Sprayed it down with Raid yard guard-left it outside for a few days and most of the ants left/died.
Ah..... Christmas memories

Next year I'll tell the one about having to truck a half assembled swing set 40 miles back to toys r us on Christmas Eve because halfway through putting the ^&*$ together in the yard (30 degrees) I realize that they left out the second bag of hardware. That was an interesting lesson on "give the customer whatever it takes to get him out of the store" .......

[pilgrim6a]

Let me get this straight. You went out to the nice quiet woods, murdered a baby tree and hauled the corpse back to your house. Now you're going to hang lights and shiny things on it and watch it decompose for the next 2 weeks.
If you did that to an animal they would lock you up!

[Sebago Son]

Originally Posted by gizamo

... dragged it home about a half mile through the woods and presented it to the bride.... Who immediately muttered something under her breath, I only caught the last few words she sputtered.

Sooo..... What's a Charlie Brown Tree?

Go shoot another one.

[JcMack]

I just took down last years tree. It was getting kinda crispy. I'll find a new one laying in the alley in about 3 weeks.

[DeadAye]

My dad was one of those guys that shouldn't drink, but did - A lot (you probably know someone just like him).
One year he was feeling pretty good and danced with the Christmas tree.
Although pretty funny it was a bit ruff on the lights and ornaments - So suddenly we didn't have any.
Next year he bought a chrome (or SS?) tree with a spotlight that had a rotating color disk. It lasted for MANY years!
To this day that is my favorite Christmas tree.
My wife thinks anything but a cedar just ain't Christmas and steel just doesn't make ANY sense at all to her.......

This year - No tree.

[JcMack]

My mother "had" to have one of the "new" aluminum trees, I'm thinking it was about late '50's. She saw an ad for one on sale at Montgomery Wards. My dad talked her into buying a '55 Dodge new that had a Hemi in it. Normally when we were all in the car she was always telling him to slow down. When she saw the Wards ad I swear we were all in pajamas and "house slippers" (she was big on house slippers) when we got in the Dodge. My Dad barely had the car started when Mom reached up and slammed the dash mounted shifter into "D". Off we go headed to Wards at 90 mph., my Mom prodding Dad to get a move on. We get to Wards in record time and enter the store and find the "tree and trim" dept.. Rats! There's 30 families standing in line ahead of us in pajamas and house slippers waiting to buy the 6' aluminum tree on sale. When we get to the front of the line there's no sale trees left. So Wards is filling orders with 8' trees for the sale price. My Mom says we'll take it!!! We sing 99 bottles of beer on the wall (Dad's fave) all the way home. We get home and drag the tree box in and find it's not 8' it's a 10'er. My Dad wants to take it back, Mom gives him the evil eye, so it stays. We had 10' ceiling so it fit. BUTT. The early trees were not very sophisticated. The pole was wood painted aluminum, in three pieces. A 10' tree had 10,000 branches, none marked, just different lengths. Dad was not happy then,and for many Christmas's thereafter. We moved about 6 yrs. later. Dad gave me a fin to make sure the tree was lost in the move.

[Pondhill]

DeadAye A redgreen fan I see

[truckemup97]

Originally Posted by m657

We get ours from a local church group....price went up this year....really full & nice Nobel Fir 6' tall for $7.

Living near the Orygun Outback has advantages.

That's why I go to Oregon, fill a 53' trailer with $5 trees (they're cheaper by the truckload), and take 'em cross country to sell 'em to suckers, er, holiday celebrants, in Maine.

[Sebago Son]

Truck, Must be city folks!

I had a Christmas tree farm for several years and you'd think that you'd skinned their cat to hear folks whine about spending $15 for a nice blue spruce.

I finally gave it up as everytime I had to buy a new blade for my trimming saw the balance sheet went in the red...

[btruman]

Did it look like this??

[jimmyj]

Christmas Trees:
Back when I was working on my first pension and all six of the kids were still home (five were in little league at the same time on the same team)
their coach had a Christmas party for the team. He and his family lived in a two story spanish typle home with a pool. Him and his family couldn't wait to show their Christmas tree. The tree was 12 foot tall and their house had ten foot ceilings. What they did was cut off the top two feet of the tree. The cut off two foot top they placed in the room above in the exact spot of the 10 foot tree down below. It looked like the tree had grown up though the ceiling. I tried VERY hard not to burst out laughing, and was able to after Penny gave me the "LOOK".
This same family just had to have a swimming pool put in on a lot that was mostly house. The pool contractor agreed to put in the pool. The pool was put in between the back door and the garage. If you came though the back door and did not turn left before taking a step, you went in the pool. The family took to going out the front door down the sidewalk to get to the garage.

[therevjay]

I still like my fiber optic plastic tree (with the cooool rotating color filter) that I bought in 1984. Best $19.95 I ever spent. Do you realize how much beer a fellow can buy with what real Christmas trees cost now?

[LouisianaJoe]

When I was single,I once broke off a foot long pine limb and clamped a pair of vice-grips to the bottom for a base. I put a piece of ribbon on it for decoration. I may have had a couple of adult beverages before hand.

[quneur]

Unless you have kids at home, why bother? You have to go and get a tree then the fun starts. Dragging it through the door (tree not wife), search the dusty attic for the base, drive back to the store for those little lights since there are more burned out bulbs then you have extra and two days before Christmas, the tree gives up the goose - all the needles fell all over the carpet. Then after New Years, take down the decorations (while you're bloated and a little buzzed because you ate and drank too much) and drag it to the curb.

Take the money you save and tell the wife, "Here, spend it at the spa (or bingo)." Grab your man-alogs, sit on the throne and imagine what you could have bought with the money.

[truckemup97]

Originally Posted by Sebago Son

Truck, Must be city folks!

I had a Christmas tree farm for several years and you'd think that you'd skinned their cat to hear folks whine about spending $15 for a nice blue spruce.

I finally gave it up as everytime I had to buy a new blade for my trimming saw the balance sheet went in the red...

I was just funnin' about Maine, but in places that don't grow trees, trees are very expensive. $100 for a 6' in SoCal. $75 for the same in south Texas. You needed to be shipping your trees to NYC! I'd bet they get close to $150 there!

[Sebago Son]

Truck,

I had a Canadian fella buy up most of my 6' commercial trees. I used to get about $3 for a Fir, $5 or a Black Pine (really a spruce) and $7 for a Blue Spruce. The Canuck brought his brother in law with him and they would cut the trees, bundle them, load 'em up and drive away. Paid me in cash which was nice, but not a real money making proposition...