Christmas 'branch' our family tradition

After some hemming and hawing last week (or perhaps I should say hemming and sawing), I put up our annual Christmas branch.

Yes, branch.

We are Christmas branch people at our house, and with few exceptions always have been.

Our house is surrounded by towering old Arizona cypress trees planted by my grandfather probably in the 1930s or 1940s.

These trees have supplied many a Christmas branch to us for two reasons: They are fresh and they are free.

Along with that, they happen to be asymmetrical, unconventional, often comical, and always one of a kind.

Because these branches defy the physics of a standard Christmas tree stand, our go-to solution to keep the branch upright and in water is a plastic five-gallon bucket filled with rocks.

This has a mixed rate of success, which is why the putting-up process sometimes requires discretely placed lengths of twine running from the “trunk” to nails driven in the edge of a nearby windowsill.

Martha Stewart would never approve.

When Santa was chatting with our 5-year-old daughter the day he came to visit her kindergarten class 20 years ago, he asked her if she had a Christmas tree at her house.

She nodded yes.

He asked her what it looked like.

She held up her arms in a giant “V” shape.

Santa, that jolly old elf, was concerned. He looked at me to see if my child was deranged.

I had to say, “No, she’s telling the truth. That’s just what it looks like.”

Many Decembers, when I am on my knees on the floor, huddled under the branch, and trying to wrestle it into position while cramming rocks into the bucket around its base, I swear that this will be the last one.

Next year, I mutter under my breath, I will invest in a traditional tree, maybe even one that comes with a stand and is pre-lit.

But then along came 2020.

My Christmas branch has found its calling.

Because like my branch, this year has been asymmetrical, unconventional, and often comical.

Here’s hoping that, like my branch, 2020 is also one of a kind.

Betty Williamson loves her crooked Christmas branches, once she gets them anchored. Reach her at:

[email protected]