Finding That Perfect Tree
Last year, we covered the simple pleasures of cutting your own Christmas tree. Well, once again, while many of you spent Black Friday subtly elbowing other members of a bargainthirsty holiday horde in a mall, outlet center or shopping plaza of your choice, my wife and I trekked out into a field in search of the perfect Christmas tree. Finding the tree and cutting it down was the easy part. Relatively speaking. Getting it into the stand? Not so much. Nothing that a few choice curses, a hack saw and a trip to our local Ace Hardware couldn't fix, though. Really, can't most problems be solved that way? I always buy my Christmas trees at McCurdy's in Dillsburg, but this year, I came across a very handy online resource called the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Map.
If you haven’t clicked through, it’s a map with the majority of the Christmas tree farms in Pennsylvania plotted. What’s especially cool, is that you can filter the results by farm features and tree type. So if you’re looking for a farm that includes a hayride for the kids where you can cut your own Canaan Fir, you can find one. Quite helpful.
Also, every year I go out to cut a tree and forget which kind is which (this year I went with a Fraser Fir). If you have the same problem, the National Christmas Tree Association has compiled a nice guide covering the major characteristics of most major Christmas tree species.
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And when your kids grow out of the hay rides and petting zoo, try Elicker's in Dillsburg. Nice trees at a great price. Our six-foot tree was only $28.