Month: December 2016

Come on Wegmans, really? You are my only go-to store for groceries, and I love you dearly, but must you break the charm of Christmas 5 days before the day itself?

Yesterday I went to gather supplies for last-minute baking to find that all the lovely displays of food and novelties for Christmas were gone, and in their place, a big fat nothing. Gone, blank spaces, departed from this world. Gone were the mini-evergreen trees, the wreaths, and the scented pinecones. In store were the displays of health and diet foods – enticements for a new year full of resolutions for weight loss and better eating habits. This is all well and good, but Wegmans, please don’t take my Christmas away from me before it has even arrived …

I went out to do some last-minute holiday errands today when I came across four very sad and little evergreens, leaning pathetically against the outside of a well-known, and not always well-thought-of, big box store. A week ago, in this same spot, there was a whole crowd of trees, puffing up their branches when someone walked by, like a prostitute on the corner saying “take me, take me.” And so they got taken – all but these four little waifs, branches splayed downward in defeat, huddling together against the bitter wind and piercing lake effect snow.

I thought of them two, three, and more months ago, how they wafted resplendent in warm breezes, basked under shimmering sunlight, and offered their fledging pinecones to anyone who asked.

Look at them now … I felt an errant tear slither down my face, freezing in midstream, and despite many choruses chastising us for our artificial tree, perhaps if more people opted for the tree in the box we’d have more, healthy and beautiful trees gracing the lands where they are meant to be.