Christmas Trees Cost HOW MUCH down here?!?!?

A little background. I lived for years in the land of Christmas tree farms. I also had the great joy of living in a 4000 square foot one hundred year old house and not worrying about the electric bill. Christmas in Snow-ville was an event at my house. In Snow-ville I set up 7 artificial trees every year (the full size kind) and trecked out through the snow with Prince Charming and the Urchins (and often a dog) to cut down 2 live trees in the snow. We would buy "cutting edge trees" (bet you didn't even know they have those ) like Canaan Firs. 2 lovely full trees about 7 foot tall of a specialty type cost about $45 each. And they are lovely.

I now live in the land of "cut your own mesquite trees" and crappy Christmas trees sitting dry and wrapped in netting at WalMart for $60 bucks for a dinky one. YUCK! Unfortunately my hovel lacks storage space. And I am in the place where the money spent on a decent artificial tree would be a big part of my Christmas budget. Plus I live with this belief that 3.5 trees from Snow-ville are eventually going to end up here (or 7, maybe Prince Charming will get his groove back on), so buying a nice tree is just out of the question.

So what is a woman to do? My urchins have these IDEAS about Christmas. You know, ideas like "Christmas trees are a necessity". Fortunately the space of our current hovel dictates that we cut it back to 1 Christmas tree. Unfortunately it is not included in the cost of rent. So, after some intense brain wracking and a couple of whipped cream vodka & sprites, it came to me. I am in Texas. We don't grow Canaan Firs. But we do grow other things. After getting rid of all of the options that have thorns, I was pretty much left with tumble weeds. By the third vodka I could see this coming together. I just need some tumble weeds and some lights and the next thing you know I am Martha Freaking Stuart (she is the only crafter that I know as I am completely not crafty).

So the urchins and I managed to find 3 tumble weeds in a tumble weed scarce year. And we took this:

And turned it into this:

All that artsy Christmas goodness and what did it cost me? Less than $12!!! How cool is that? The urchins and I had a great time doing it and they have both promised me that if they ever have kids they are telling their kids about the year that we made a tree out of weeds. The best thing is that the urchins think that we did this because it was fun and different, they have no idea that this was a financial decision. Funny thing is that we never laughed so much putting up any of those Snow-ville trees. If I have grandkids some day, I am making a tumble weed tree with them. I don't expect anyone that reads this to make a tumble weed tree, but it does go to show that a little creativity can replace quite a few dollars.

It is only scary before you jump!
SingleBrokeMom