Saving Money on Christmas Trees
‘œThe perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect!’ ‘“ Charles N. Barnard
When Jeanine and I try to cut corners and save money, it typically is a disaster. Like the time we canceled our cleaning service at the house. This money-saving experiment lasted about two minutes and the ironic part of the story was that the new cleaning service ended up costing us $10 more a week than the old one. So much for saving money’¦ but we have a clean home for $160 a month. Even the cat is happy.
So this year with all the baby-making expenses, we decided to try Home Depot to save a few yuletide bucks on our Christmas tree. What a fiasco! For over a decade, Jeanine has gone to the same high-end Newport Beach Christmas tree lot. They play music, serve coffee, and have buff and hunky men to help lug and load it on our car.
Home Depot has none of this. But you’ll save 20 bucks. A Noble Fir is $39.99 at Home Depot. The equivalent size tree at our super high-end Newport lot is $59.99.
Here’s how it went. We drove to Home Depot on Saturday afternoon and the parking lot was a nightmare because it was a Saturday and the height of shopping season. We had to park and walk what seemed like a football field to get to the outdoor nursery section. Once inside the gates, we were on our own. Most of the trees were still wrapped with twine and one of the workers handed us garden clippers and said, ‘œKnock yourself out!’ If we wanted to peruse the area for the best option, then it was up to us to clip and unravel the twine from each tree. Where were the hunky boys to help? Where was the Christmas music? The piping hot coffee? Not at Home Depot.
We finally found one we liked and I dragged it over to the line where Jeanine asked one of the associates if they would put on the stand for us. We had brought our own. It’s the kind requiring you to drill a hole in the bottom of the tree and then hammer it in. Home Depot doesn’t do this. But he said it was easy and we could do it at home with a hammer. Yeah, right. We own a hammer, but we’re drill-less lesbians. It takes a drill.
I looked around and saw people struggling to get their trees on top of their SUV’s. I turned to Jeanine and asked, ‘œIs this worth saving 20 bucks?’ She laughed and questioned how hard it would be to drag the tree across a parking lot that we already knew seemed the length of a football field.
With that we pushed the tree aside and drove to our super high-end Newport lot. The air was festive; people were sipping coffee and laughing with seasonal joy as they paid for their overpriced trees. We gladly paid $59.99 for ours. The tree stand was intact and we tipped the hunk $5 to carry, load and tie it on top of the Volvo.
When is it worth saving money? When is it not? You tell me’¦
“Drill-less” I’m not sure about whether you saved money or not but the word-smithing worthy of Dan Savage made my day.
Congrats on the happy holiday tree. I grew up with an artificial tree. Our guests always thought it was real. I’m not sure why they thought it was real… it didn’t smell real but I guess looked convincing enough. I’m sure that was a savings.
And if the time involved in getting and setting up a tree is a factor in the cost-savings analysis then I’d suggest going with the artificial and do like we did one year. We left the tree up for a whole year. That meant that where most had to set up the tree twice we set it up once.
We re-decorated it for each of the holidays. My favorite was Easter when we used all of my stuffed animals to decorate the tree.
I’m currently leaving the frame of my sukkah (‘temporary’ home used for religious purposes 8 days each year) up for the second straight year. My friends are horrified, but it saves me so much time and bother. Putting up the walls, decorations, and ceiling takes less than 2 hours – organizing a sukkah building party takes days of stress.
Adam: With artificial Christmas trees, you bring up a topic I neglected to cover. My family was always of the “real” variety, but you make a convincing argument with the costs savings. I’d beg to differ on the leaving it all year approach… a kid’s fantasy, a designer’s nightmare. Here’s some more info when it comes to buying one: Top 10 Mistakes People Make When Buying an Artificial Christmas Tree
Larry: I learn something new every time you leave a comment.
Sukkah: “Although the festival of Sukkot is a joyous occasion… the sukkah itself symbolizes the frailty and transience of life. It also reminds its dwellers that true security comes from faith in God, rather than from money or possessions.”
There’s an interesting thought!
Okay, first things first.
“Drill-less lesbians” is such a catchy phrase. I would just love to hear it in a C&W song. Oh, the possiblities are endless. Makes me want to send you a DeWalt for Christmas.
Secondly,I now know about sukkah, Sukkoth and Tishri. It’s more than a blog, it’s a leaning center!
Now, to round this down — your companion post was “Reducing, Re-using and Re-claiming”. If you had gotten a live tree and planted it, given it to a park, or put it on “Freecycle” to give away once you had celebrated Christmas that would have been a much better option. There is a site or blog, “Bare Bones Gardening” that has an Australian take on the whole tree thing.
Still waiting for the rest of the words to that C&W song.
Hi Nina,
Fitting for me to read this article today…I’m going xmas tree shopping with Khaia & my mother-in-law today. For the past 4 years, we’ve supported a lot run by a local non-profit. But this year mom wanted to try Longs. She saw that she could save $20 or $30 dollars. It took a lot of convincing her NOT to go there. If it takes us 2 hours to choose a tree at the usual lot–I’m lucky. Longs would have been a nightmare! Khaia & I enjoy supporting local vs. corporate. It’s comforting to see we’re not alone!
Happy holidays!
Allison