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Bud Grossmann’s
Words of the Week
for the Week of
December 17, 2006
Published as Family History
in a Gramma Letter dated December 17, 1996.
© 1996 by Bud Grossmann.
All Rights Reserved.
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David, Subaru, Christmas Tree, 1987
© 1987 by Bud Grossmann
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AND ONE TREE MORE
Tuesday, December 17, 1996
Dear Gramma,
Christmas, a time of excess. Even at the very first Christmas, a “multitude of the heavenly host” declared peace upon the earth. Why a multitude? Couldn’t a quartet or a trio have handled the task?
My family has an excess of Christmas trees this year. Not quite a multitude, but we do have a trio of trees. In David’s room we set up a tall and wide-limbed “Charlie Brown” tree; in Elizabeth’s, we planted a kid-sized tree in a bucket of bricks; and in our living room we placed a bushy-boughed, rich-scented fir to shelter a mound of bow-topped boxes. We have ornaments enough, but we have run out of tree stands.
Three is a lot, but not a record. After Elizabeth was born in 1987, we celebrated her first Christmas in the company of hundreds of trees. You might recall—we visited you and Grampa at your farm.
Yes, hundreds of evergreens for Christmas and—in our Hawaii home—one tree more. We hadn’t intended to buy one before the trip. I remember, though, how it happened. Six-year-old David and I, grocery list in hand, arrived at the supermarket one afternoon in early December. The moment we stepped from the car I said, “Mmmm! I love the smell of Christmas!” We walked among rootless Douglas firs that hugged each other for balance in a fenced part of the parking lot.
“Your great-grandparents raise Christmas trees,” I told my boy. “When we get to the farm, we’ll watch Great-Grampa cut them. But we have to be careful. He uses a chainsaw, a truly dangerous item.”
“It can cut your hand off or your foot?” asked David.
“Yes, it sure can.”
“It can cut off your head? Or your body in half?”
“Hmm, yes, that’s right.” I was looking at the tree prices—not bad, not bad!
“Can it cut through the sidewalk?”
“Nope, not the sidewalk.”
“Can it cut paper really easily?”
“Yes, son, I suppose it can. But not really neatly.”
We had moved, that summer. Our new house, built in the 1940’s, featured oak floors and high ceilings. A big tree would look great in our living room. A big tree would make the house a home.
So Dave and I picked out a nice ten-footer. We discovered, though, that our ceilings were only nine feet high. We thought about raising the roof but ended up going with another plan. And another holiday season turned out to be filled to overflowing.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, Gramma!
Love,
Buddy
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