Santa and His Airplane

Here in Canbyland, we believe that Santa delivers all the goodies from his airplane. Tossing appropriate presents over the side of his open cockpit biplane, the toys, book & games all find their way down the chimney with Santa's patented  Magic Dust©  and arrange themselves under the tree. The tree, of course, is decorated with our favorite airplane ornaments.

Christmas tree farms abound around us and while the cityfolk come out to Merrywood for ponyrides and $75 Nobles, we drive about 1 mile to the next street over and get ours for two bucks a foot. Always amazing, our 10 - 12 foot Grand or Noble ends up costing us $12 - every year.

A few years back at a neighborhood Christmas party, a few of my neighbors were hotly debating the 'environmental greenness' of getting a fake tree next year instead of the huge hoary impact of cutting down and throwing away a perfectly good Doug Fir or a Noble or a Grand Fir.

Just the day before the sound of a helicoptor was overhead for hours, ferrying trees to the baler and the semi. Seasonal workers scurry faster than I work trying to keep up with cutting, trimming, baling and loading the truck. These seasonal workers depend on the income these tree farms produce and just so you know -- THE TREES ARE GROWN AS A CONSUMER CROP which employs many OREGON WORKERS.



Of course the FAKE tree sheds no needles. It gives off a clearly neutral scent of old tinsel.  For those of us subject to environmental ethics and allergies, this plastic product is made in China, employing workers at less than I spend per hour on chocolate and has a few extra heavy metals encased in the needle manufacture as a bonus.

How is one to pick?