The Hartley Sentinel-The Everly/Royal News - Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties

Every Christmas movie on television has a perfect Christmas tree. Usually the tree is live, rather than artificial, and it comes from a tree farm or a downtown tree lot. The trees are somehow perfectly shaped to fit into the house, and beautiful ornaments and lights are waiting for their arrival. Hot cocoa and cookies complete the perfect holiday ensemble. After the star is placed on top, the people look out the window to see snowflakes floating in the air. You can almost hear Bing Crosby breaking into song.

I have been around Christmas activities for more than seven decades. I remember having a tree with lights and ornaments every year, drinking cocoa and eating cookies at some point, and living in Northwest Iowa usually guarantees you snow. I remember having several live trees, cutting a few of them from a nearby tree farm. We never seemed to get the one we liked from a tree lot and usually they would dry out too fast. In recent years, my wife seems to prefer the artificial trees. They can be stored in the basement and aren't difficult to put up or decorate. The best part is that there are no dry needles to clean up.

When I was growing up on a farm, Saturday was usually our grocery shopping day. My mom would bring home our Christmas tree one or two Saturdays before Christmas. It had been out in front of the grocery store for a while, and often was wet and full of snow. We would set it up on the front porch, straighten it as best we could, and after the tree had dripped dry, we brought it into the house to begin decorating. There were lights to test, ornaments to put on, and tinsel to distribute as evenly as possible. I think my mother probably redecorated the tree after we kids went to bed. By the time Christmas was over, our tree had sagged and tipped, and there were more needles on the floor than on the tree.

I belonged to our church youth group when I was in high school and it was our job to decorate the church for Christmas. We hauled straw bales for the outdoor manger and carted a large tree indoors to be decorated. One year the tree was rather large – perhaps too large for our church – and we could barely get it through the double doors. When we got to the front of the church, we put a stand on it while it was lying on its side. When we went to raise it, the weight of the tree pushed it back down. We almost had it upright on the third try before it started to fall, and most of us jumped out of the way. One of the older boys decided to stop the tree from falling, was knocked to the ground and got a bruised ego for his efforts. We eventually got the church decorated and were able to laugh about it afterwards.

After I got married, we would buy a tree in front of a store like my parents did. They would dry out and shed needles, just like my parents' trees. Finally, we found a tree farm where we could cut our own tree. I always enjoyed that and I tried to pass the joy on to my wife and kids. December in Iowa, however, is often snowy and cold. I remember being on the tree lot, looking for the perfect tree, when my family members pointed to a tree and demanded that we take it. It wasn't because it was the prettiest tree, it was because they were too cold to look any further. Oh well, at least this tree didn't dry out and shed needles.

One year, after my kids had moved away from home, I was involved in a Kinship program, which is similar to Big Brother programs in larger cities. I was mentoring a young man and we did a variety of projects together. We decided to go to the tree farm one Saturday, but rather than accompanying us, my wife decided to go Christmas shopping. We found the perfect tree, cut it and loaded it into my pickup, but I couldn't find my keys when we were ready to leave. I had to call my wife, have her go home for a spare set of keys and come to the tree farm to rescue me. There was a happy ending when the owner of the tree farm found my keys the following April. They were under a tree that we had rejected earlier in our search.

We haven't cut our own trees in recent years. Some artificial trees are pretty attractive and look like the real thing. My wife does a nice job with the decorations, too. It is easier for her to handle, not messy and stores away neatly. I still prefer the scent of a fresh-cut tree and hope to be able to cut a few more in the coming years – my grandkids need to experience the snow and cold while finding the perfect tree. They need to drag it through the snow, set it up to dry off, decorate it, and then have some cocoa and cookies. Maybe they can record it all on a cellphone and compare it to the movies, though they probably haven't heard of Bing Crosby.

Roger Brockshus and his wife, Rita, live in Spirit Lake. They are both somewhat retired and volunteer in their community and church. Roger also operates a small lawn business. He is a member of the Hartley Writers Group and Hartley Poetry Group.