Welcome back! I hope your bundled up and staying warm during this first full day of winter. Today I'll be talking about ways to be a little more environmentally friendly when it comes to decorating for the Christmas season. This may be already too late to share Green Tip #58 as Christmas is just 3 days away and if you haven't picked out your tree yet, you'll probably end up with a tree that will make the Charlie Brown tree look like the one in Rockefeller Center. So make sure to file away what I'm saying here until next year and remember to keep it in mind come next November.
All throughout history, the dominant way of doing something has been unseated by a new technological or societal advancement. Consider how telegraphs were rendered obsolete by the popularity of the US Postal Service. In recent years mail volumes have dropped due to the rise of fax and e-mail. Or consider how long distance passenger trains in the US have become a thing of the past due to the highway system and airline travel. Finally, think of how in the coming century, coal and gas power will be replaced with solar, wind and nuclear power.
Now I'm not saying that what I'm about to propose is as groundbreaking as airline travel or e-mail. I mean we're only talking about Christmas trees here. But in order to make Green Tip #58 seem more significant, I'm going to create a metaphor comparing Christmas trees to the automotive industry.
If you can recall, during the 60's and 70's, there were really only three choices when it came to what kinds of cars Americans could buy. Ford (real evergreen trees) General Motors (artificial trees) or the less popular Chrysler (don't celebrate Christmas). This system worked well. Nobody complained that the cars were all of very poor quality and were really bad for the environment (just like cutting down trees every year or manufacturing artificial trees). It was just the way the system was and nobody thought to challenge the status quo.
Until Japan decided to throw its hat into the ring. During the 80's, along came Toyota and Honda with a new line of cars that had very few defects and were much more customizable. Suddenly everyone wanted one and just a few years ago, Toyota passed up GM as the largest car company in the world. This story is legendary among engineering and business classes and is used as an example of how making things better can completely shake up the industry.
Well what is the Christmas tree equivalent to this story? No, not import your trees from Japan (if you think that you missed the point of the metaphor). Instead what I suggest is that you just dig a hole in your living room and plant the tree right there. You get all the benefits of having a live tree (yummy Christmas-y smell, for example) without the lameness of an artificial tree. And even better is that it will be around every year! You'll never have to cut down another tree! And you don't have to water it! AND it will filter out all that carbon dioxide you're exhaling and release more oxygen!
Now it does get a little tricky when it comes to what to do if you have downstairs neighbors. You'll just have to arrange something with them so that you just get a bigger tree and you'll just have the top part sticking up into your place and they take the middle and bottom parts. They'll understand when they'll have to give up putting an angel on the top.
And you have the issue of it being there year round. You never know, this might start a new set of traditions. I can just imagine the kids walking up on President's Day morning to rush downstairs and find the presents that George Washington left under the President's Day Tree. I can't wait to go caroling with songs set to the tune of 'Hail to the Chief' and setting up my Obama and Nixon nutcrackers. And what about a remake of 'A Christmas Story' where a young Lincoln wants a BB gun but his mom says no because he'll shoot his eye out...
Oh. Um. Sorry. Too soon?
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