Lacey Middlestead is a Montana native and freelance writer currently living in Helena, Mont. She loves meeting new people and helping share their stories. When she’s not busy writing articles for newspapers like the Independent Record and Helena Vigilante, she can usually be found indulging in her second greatest passion–playing in the Montana wilderness. She loves skiing and snowmobiling in the winter and four wheeling, hiking, boating, and riding dirt bikes in the summer.

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“We're kicking off our fun old-fashion family Christmas by heading out into the country in the old front-wheel drive sleigh to embrace the frosty majesty of the winter landscape and select that most important of Christmas symbols.”

Clark Griswold boldly stated these words in the iconic movie, “Christmas Vacation,” while driving out to the woods to find a Christmas tree with his family. This past weekend, I too found myself in search of that green and fragrant symbol of Christmas.

I have lived in Montana all 26 years of my life, and yet, I have never had a real, live Christmas tree. The artificial trees I grew up with were stunning and did boast greater stability and longevity that the nature grown trees, but they always seemed to be lacking in that true Christmas in Montana feel. So this year I made up my mind that I was going to have a real tree! And because I like to fully commit to things, I was determined to go pick one out and cut it down rather than take the easy way and buy one from a tree stand.

On Saturday afternoon my boyfriend and I, along with his trusty chainsaw, headed out toward Rimini in search of our version of the “Griswold Family Christmas Tree.”

Picking out that perfect Christmas tree becomes much more daunting the minute you get out in the woods and realize that it is full of hundreds of perfectly good trees. But you want to find the right one. That one surrounded by a golden halo like the tree Clark eventually settled on. You want to have that “Say Yes to the Dress” moment where you start crying because it is so beautiful. I must confess that none of these moments occurred during my tree hunt. But we did finally settle on a nice tree that my boyfriend was gracious enough to cut down for me; the thought of me wielding a chainsaw just seemed like an accident waiting to happen. I did drag the tree through the snow back to the truck though so I felt like I’d assisted in some way. After wrapping my orange tree permit around the base, we loaded the tree up and headed for home. I was already imagining it lit up with multi-colored bulbs and strings of garland.

The funny thing about cutting down a tree in the woods is that you never realize just how big it actually is standing next to other trees. Once you get home though and move it into your seven foot tall living room, its true size becomes apparent. Not only did we have to shave a few more inches off the bottom to get it to fit inside, but the girth of it ironically remind me of Clark’s tree when he cut the rope and it exploded outward breaking windows and lamps.  All of the smaller trees I’d dismissed in the woods for being too small were sounding pretty good to me about then.

After rearranging my furniture and shoving the sparser end of the tree into the corner, I decided I could make it work. For the next few hours my boyfriend and I decorated the tree with strings of red beads, purple and blue snowflakes, plastic candy canes, and shiny red and green balls. We even hung miniature Christmas sweater ornaments with words like “joy,” “hope,” and “peace” on them. All of the ornaments, thankfully, were compliments of my mother. This was not only my first real Christmas tree, but my first tree in my own house. I always spend Christmas with my parents and am usually too busy during the holidays to even think about putting up my own tree. This is a Christmas of many firsts for me.

While I’ve decided that the process of cutting down and decorating one’s own tree is slightly overrated, the final product is beyond breathtaking. When all the lights are turned off, my tree glows brightly in the corner, casting colorful shadows like a disco ball along the ceiling and walls.  And seeing my tree, my very first real Christmas tree, just makes me feel the warmth and hope of the season inside----no matter what kind of day I’ve had.

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