Crazy X-Mas Tree buying/transporting stories.....

[addyguy]

Got any good/memorable stories about buying an X-Mas tree, or trying to get it home?

When I was younger, we always got live pine trees for X-Mas every year. I usually went with my dad to help get the tree back home.

The year my godfather left us his 1976 Gremlin, my father decided for some strange reason to use that car to get our tree...this car was 12 years old at this point, and had many 'issues'....among them, the brakes didn't work properly, and the drivers door didn't close properly either.

So, on a very snowy cold night, we went out to get a tree. My dad held the door closed with one arm, and used the other to help slow the car down by down-shifting the auto trans into lower gears.

We found a tree at some remote lot, and stuffed it in the back of the Gremlin. It stuck out enugh that there was worry about it falling out, so I ended up crouched in the back hatch, holding the tree to keep it from falling out.

So there we are, driving slowly home, dad trying to keep the drivers door closed, and slowing down with the transmission, and me, in the back, trying to hold the tree in the car by bracing myself against the back of the car, and holding onto a sticky tree.

AFAIR, that was the last time we drove that car. After that car, we got a 1989 Toyota Tercel Hatch. On subsequent X-Mas's, gues who helped hold the tree in at the back....?

Got any good stories?

 

[IndyIan]

We always tied our trees onto the roof so even getting a 12' tree wasn't really a challenge to get home.

I have a good tree disposal story though.
The one year my Dad and another fellow volunteered to take the church X-mas tree to the dump, it was a 20 footer and the plan was to use the other guys pickup but he had some emergency and couldn't show up.
My Dad and I had driven to the church in his 626 and the usual strategy of just tossing the tree on the roof wasn't going to work. So we came up with the plan of just dragging the tree to dump behind the car. We got a rope from the car and tied it on the trunk and did few wraps around the passenger side pillar and I held the rope...
It was only 5 miles to the dump on back roads and it turns out skidding a tree at 40mph doesn't really even damage it much. We did get a few looks from other cars but no one seemed to be worried about it and the tree lost only needles and a few very small branches. Even the guy at the dump which is supposed to accept "covered" loads only just laughed and let us in...

 

[addyguy]

My father bought both a house, and a Chevrolet Malibu Wagon, at about the same time in 1978.

We started buying real X-Mas trees when we had a single family home - in the condo we had before, it was all artificial trees...but I don't remember that.

Since he had a station wagon, he used to just put the trees in the back, so they fit fine. That year, with the Gremlin, was the first time he'd used something other that the Malibu to bring home a tree.

That's why I gues he didn't think to tie the tree to the roof - was used to it fitting stuffed in the back!

 

[jimbeamalki]

Late 60's in college--Fraternity tradition was for pledges to go out and steal a tree. Out of 30 pledges, only 2 close friends and I were brave enough to do it. Took my 57 Ford and a saw, went to a Mansion that had 15' pines growing all around it and cut the one on the corner. Most probably drunk (and loud), and owner called cops. Had one buddy sit in trunk and hold trunk of tree. As we were crossing a divided bridge going east, cops were on other side of bridge headed west with the flashers and sirens on. Didn't get caught. I still live within 3 miles where all this happened. About 10 years later, mansion got sold, converted to condos, and they cut all the trees down--which made me feel better.

 

[jimbeamalki]

Early 80's, wanted to start family tradition of cutting our own tree down. Found a Christmas tree farm 20 miles away. Packed up the wife and 3 daughters (then 7 & 8), and away we went. Unfortunately, it was windy and about 4 degrees out. From then on nobody would do it, so every year for about 10+ years I'd head out in my 79 Ranchero by myself with a small bottle of schnapps and go cut the tree. Always found a real nice one, too.

 

[mrsilv04]

Gee, are we past Thanksgiving already?

How about we take the holidays one at a time, in the order that they arrive on the calendar...

 

[hate2work]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Gee, are we past Thanksgiving already?

How about we take the holidays one at a time, in the order that they arrive on the calendar...


OK...You got any good turkey buying/transporting stories? LOL

Geez, lighten up a bit

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Gee, are we past Thanksgiving already?

How about we take the holidays one at a time, in the order that they arrive on the calendar...


Uummm.....we ARE past Thanksgiving there, bud!

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: hate2work
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Gee, are we past Thanksgiving already?

How about we take the holidays one at a time, in the order that they arrive on the calendar...


OK...You got any good turkey buying/transporting stories? LOL

Geez, lighten up a bit

Really!

 

[The_Jeff]

My hippie aunt used to "liberate" pine trees from semi-public areas. They were always scraggly charlie brown types so she'd usually get two and hose-clamp the trunks together to fill them out. We considered it "forestry" as the stolen trees were usually in the shadow of some other tree, cramped in there and unlikely to flourish.

My dad would go to one of those parking lot operations, find a $12 tree, call it good, and stuff it in the back of our ford fairmont wagon. Usually angel-side first, so the branches would catch on the tailgate opening and shed all kinds of pine needles. There were years worth of pine needles in the back, he never vacuumed or anything! So there'd be some old brown ones down there when the new green ones went in. And he never bought any air fresheners either; didn't need to; the car smelled pine-y anyway.

I've stuffed trees in my saturn wagon; all you need is the center of gravity on board and a few bungees.

 

[Shannow]

When I was in my mid teens, Dad my brother and I would go jogging a couple of days befre Christmas, with a tomahawk and a saw.

We'd jog to the nearest pine plantation, find a tree, and jog back carrying it. Dad at the heavy end, me in the middle, and brother at the pointy end.

Car headlights, and we'd drop the tree, keep jogging, and come back when lights are gone.

 

[Scienceman]

Its CHRISTmas.

 

[NJC]

We've drive 140 miles to cut a tree down under powerlines a few times. Also had to add some branches to our first spindly Charlie Brown tree.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: Troy_Built
Its CHRISTmas.


Or Festivus for the rest of us.

 

[mrsilv04]

Yeah, nothing makes Christmas more special than decorating a stolen tree...

 

[sciphi]

Once my little brother, who was 3 at the time, fell into an icy stream about 15 minutes walk from the station wagon. My dad got soaked yanking him out. Not a happy family outing with a wet, bawling brother and two icy parents.