CULTURE SHOCK

All Christmas trees are 'real'

In the early aughts (2008-2014-ish), my friends and I all blogged about life and love. I hate that we fell out of that habit of regular writing because it is an amazing time capsule of our lives before Instagram. I know what really happened. We had desk jobs and goofed off a lot of the time. We had constant massive email chains with 20 people on them (this was before iPhone group text, mind you), and our G-Chats were rapid fire. Then we got busy jobs that paid more. Life happened.

One of the more memorable blog posts was a debate between my good friend, George Stegall, and myself, regarding what is better: artificial or real Christmas trees?

In the last 10 years, my husband, John, and I have always bought real trees. And yes, they have been a pain when we deconstructed them.

At that time, however, I traveled a lot for work and had a roommate who worked all the time, too. Plus, we spent Christmas at home in Alexander City, not in Birmingham, where we were living. We were excited about our pre-lit $25 tree from Walmart, and George was flabbergasted (mostly grossed out) by our decision. He said it was not really a Christmas tree unless it was real. I think he just thought we were tacky.

George and I are both pretty opinionated, but once he realized most of our friends and parents, at the time, were on the artificial tree train, he quickly declared that it must be an Alexander City thing (George went to Homewood High School).

Well, his list of Alexander City things was long, and looking back on it, I laugh because they are all true. n Fake Trees n Chain Restaurants n How Alexander Citians pronounce the word, baccalaureate (Bacc-a-LAR-e-ute) n Chimney Rock jumping n Front hugging Culture Shock The point I’m trying to make is timely with the opening of our new Chick-fil-A and the rock star mayhem it created. I want everyone to remember back 10 or 15 years ago. We did not have very many restaurant options at all, and truth be told, we did not have many chain restaurants. In high school, we drove 45 minutes to Auburn to specifically eat at Chick-fil-A and Checkers, and yes, we drove to Birmingham because we loved Cheesecake Factory. I am so incredibly proud of the growth and progress our town has made – on U.S. Route Lacey Howell 280, downtown and our whole Lake Martin area in general. Dadeville, you are looking awesome too. The landscape has changed over the years, but the heart of this small town has not. I am very thankful this year for my friends and my community because they truly are my family. Full disclosure, I am looking at the glittery gold tinsel tree I bought this year instead of a real tree. I stuffed pink ostrich feathers in it because I was going for a Vegas showgirl tree. And I love that George Stegall will think it is the tackiest thing he has ever seen. To bring it home, this is how I ended that 2008 blog post. Merry Christmas, y’all. In conclusion, no one tree is better or worse than the other. To each their own, as we so often like to say in the humble little village of Alexander City. Does anyone remember Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree? Sure, who doesn’t? It was not more than a branch – small, weak, under-watered, and it looked like it might catch A Vegas Showgirl Christmas on fire. Charlie’s tree taught us that it is not the size, shape or make of the tree, but the love Glittery gold tinsel that goes into the tree itself that matters. Let us all fill our and pink ostrich trees with love this year and Joy to World! feathers make Peace. for a fabulous tree this year. ~ Lacey Howell is a recovering English major from Auburn who now lives on Lake Martin, sells real estate, rides horses and loves good wine. Follow her on Instagram @ LaceyHowell and on her Facebook page.