Snickers Gap

Posted on November 29th, 2016

This Thanksgiving was the first holiday we have spent with Ian’s family.  Ian and I grew up together in St. Louis, but his parents moved to the DC area a few years ago, and this occasion was long overdue.  Most of the Thursday celebration was pretty standard Thanksgiving fare (a totally lovely day with tons of food and tons of family), but there was one family tradition I could not wait to experience: the Christmas tree farm.  Their family observes Jewish and Christian traditions, but they definitely don’t hold back when it comes to Christmas decor.  My family switched to artificial trees years ago after evergreens were linked to my brother’s asthma, so I had never had the chop-your-own-tree experience.

I loved it.

We visited Snickers Gap Tree Farm (a name too absurd to invent) bright and early on Friday morning to pick a winner.  A hillside covered in trees was an impressive sight, but it was the rich, earthy pine smell that I could not get enough of.  Once the winning flawless fir was identified, Ian and I volunteered to handle the sawing process, and we retained all of our fingers so I suppose we can count it as a success.  Watch out, Paul Bunyan.

Between sipping on sweet (and hard!) cider while waiting for the trees to be bagged and blasting Christmas tunes in the car on the way home, I was feeling all kinds of festive.  Artificial trees may be more conducive to my current urban apartment lifestyle, but I am definitely hoping for more Christmas tree farm visits in my future.