Every year we go to a tree farm called Christmas Creek in North Bend where my guys insist the North Pole is, and it’s become a lovely tradition of getting our tree, seeing Santa, riding on a tractor-pulled hay cart and eating cookies from George’s Bakery in front of a fire. Except this year, we were coming back from a trip to Vancouver when we realized we had to get a tree THAT day or risk not being able to cut down one together for Christmas or have a tree for only a really short time or get one from a nearby grocery store and we didn’t have enough time that day to make it to Christmas Creek before Santa left.
So, here’s to a box of kleenex (for me as I sobbed a little that we had to break our tradition) and to quick-thinking and a list of Washington area Christmas tree farms that led us to Farmer Brown’s tree farm in Arlington, Washington. (We picked it because it was near Mount Vernon/Marysville where we were when we made the decision and Farmer Brown is the star in all the Click Clack Moo books.) We called ahead to make sure it was open and we just made it before everything there shut down. And I wasn’t sure how much the trees were, but online I read they were all the same price and there was a coupon code for a couple dollars off on the site too. (The tree ended up being about 7 ft tall and with baling our total came just under 50 dollars)
We had never to Farmer Brown’s before, so I was a little worried that we might get lost, or end up at the wrong place.
But even as we rounded corners into unfamiliar territory, we knew we were heading the right way.
There was snow on the ground.
The light was beautiful.
And we found our perfect tree.
Together.
We even got the last few bits of kettle corn from the stand as it shut down, warmed our toes around a big fire and watched the sun set as we left for home with our tree proudly strapped to the roof of our car.
I’m learning that with traditions sometimes it’s okay to try something new, because the reason why the tradition started in the first place is so much bigger than the tradition itself.
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)