Saturday, December 29, 2007

Real Christmas Trees...

Chad: Why don't we get a real Christmas tree?
Me: Because I can't justify cutting down a perfectly good tree just to decorate our house for a few weeks.
Chad: Do they just go out and cut them down from everywhere?
Me: No. They grow them in something called a tree farm.
Chad: So, they buy some land with trees, and cut them down?
Me: No. I'm pretty sure they plant the trees there.
Chad: That's good, right? Planting trees?
Me: Not if they're just going to cut them down in a couple of years. What's the point?
Chad: Oh.
(long, thoughtful pause)

Chad: If they didn't have tree farms, the trees could just grow wild there?
Me: Well.. no probably not. It would probably be turned into farmland.
Chad: With no trees at all.
Me: Right.
Chad: So.. the tree farmers are still kind of helping. They keep planting trees there, and if they didn't, there would be no trees.
Me: I... I guess so.
Chad: So maybe we should get a real tree. You know, so the tree farmers will keep planting them.

Sometimes that kid is so much smarter than I am.

7 comments:

kitten said...

He does make a good argument! LOL!
I rather have a real tree, but we go to maw's and cut ours down. My oldest one has gotton really good at those arguments thingys.

Frankie said...

lol Heather -- thoughtful child. I guess he really wants a real tree?

We don't do real because they're messy, they dry out, sometimes it's unsafe to run lights on them, and they get needles all over the house when you take them out.

They smell good, though.

Heather said...

Smart kid. Scary isn't it, sometimes, how they know how to get us thinking?

Anonymous said...

I love it. He could be a lawyer when he grows up. I do think he has good logic and if the tree is made into wood chips for parks (they do that here) or used for firewood when it is dry, then it has served more of a purpose as well. Of course we don't get a tree with not doing Christmas, but now that we are on the acreage and have our own, that is the way we would go. We have a forested area and there are nice size trees growing in the ditch that will be plowed over and wasted when the county thinks they are getting in the way. There are smaller ones I will be taking out this summer and transplanting to better places in our yard. We could decorate outside, but we don't. I do want to get some little white lights this week to put up as patio lights in summer and they will stay out all year. Sorry about that, blah, blah, blah...I just ramble.

MOM #1 said...

You never stood a chance against that argument, I could tell from the first word. LOL. At least you know FOR SURE that you have taught him incredible logical though processes.

Hilarious!

Heather said...

LOL, to tell the truth, I felt the shift about the time he asked what would happen to the land if there were no tree farms. By then, I had a pretty good idea at least of where it *could* go, and then it did. The funny part is that this line of thinking had never even occurred to me.

Holly said...

And actuall, he's right, the most ecologically frienly tree is a live, in a pot tree that you plant, but after that is a christmas tree farm tree. The worst is a fake. Which is what I have. Hanging my head in shame.