Real or Fake, It's National Christmas Tree Week

It’s National Christmas Tree Week—as declared recently by the U.S. Senate—so why not honor Senate Resolution 341 and head out to buy a tree? Whether you choose Douglas, noble or grand to fir-nish your holiday spirit, there are places near and nearer at which to purchase your Christmas tree.

In Gilroy, the Christopher High School track and field team will sell Christmas trees in the school's back parking lot for its CHS Christmas tree lot fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. through Sunday. There will be Douglas fir, noble fir and Turkish fir trees. The fundraiser is to help the team with the cost of uniforms, travel and equipment. Free hot chocolate will be available. Details: Jeff.Myers@gusd.k12.ca.us.

For those not “in the know” about the real, or fresh—not fake or artificial—Christmas tree industry, real trees have been getting chopped financially over the years as the artificial tree industry beefed up its marketing campaign. A move by the National Christmas Tree Association to self-impose a 15-cent tax (Senate Resolution 341) on its industry to create a promotional campaign to help growers research, development and market its industry got the ax by the Obama administration after pundits cried foul over a new tax, though the tax originally was approved.

The Senate declaration for National Christmas Tree Week is suspected to be a softener to the whack the tree association took to its program, which was likened to other industry group campaigns such as “Got Milk” or “Where’s the Beef?” campaigns.

So if you want to support the growth of fresh trees, you know where to go in Gilroy! 

A little tidbit of trivia finds that the tradition of a decorated real tree can be traced back to Riga, Latvia, in 1510, at least that’s according to the Northwest Herald.