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Tuesday 13 December 2005

Random Questions About France

A French Christmas Tree

As the subject line indicates, I have some random questions about France: specifically French Christmas trees. I've noticed that trees are sold sort of stuck into half a log of a larger tree. When people take their trees home, do they leave them this way or do they transfer them to water-containing christmas tree stands? If so, where would one buy said stands? If not, do they put the whole tree bottom in a bucket? How are trees watered? If trees are not watered, how do people keep them from catching fire? Do people just leave their trees up for a few days in that case?

In the US, there are always major warnings about tree fires, but people there tend to leave their trees up for 6 weeks and they're not very fresh when they get them. My family always went to tree farms and sawed down a tree, so it was very fresh and I remember that when we got it home, we would bolt it into a tree stand and start it off initially with aspirin and coffee. I think I would need aspirin and some coffee too, if I had just been sawed down. Apparently, the same properties that make both those things good for headaches are also good for keeping sap vessels open, so the tree can absorb a lot of water and not dry out.

The last couple of years, I had a live tree in a pot, because I felt kind of guilty about sawing one down and killing it, but then I killed my potted tree anyway. It's not like all the paper that I use is 100% recycled. So tree death is a part of life.

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3 comments:

Estelle said...

Waoh! This is getting fancy! I've never seen the half log stand before... All the Xmas trees I've seen in France came on a (unstable) wooden cross. And we never ever used a water-containing stand... I discovered those in the US.

Polly Springhorn said...

Last time I had a live tree I planted it in front of the cottage after Christmas. It is now quite a bit taller than I am. I haven't had any kind of tree since, because I only want a live one that I can thereafter plant, and now I live someplace where I can't do that.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps they merely use the log as a stand when it's for sale, much how US trees aren't watered when at the xmas tree lot.

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