I’ve always been on the side of real Christmas trees. As a child, we’d go out to a tree farm and cut down a tree. My love for real trees isn’t entirely the tree itself, but the whole experience.

At the same time, when we adopted Reed and Lena, some lovely people decorated our house for Christmas and put up an artificial tree. Now, I get why they’re so popular, too. Easy and convenient. Plus, I’ve hated the idea of buying a tree when we have this one sitting in our basement.

Enter in the “Cedar Tree Event” where you go out an chop down an invasive red cedar for a small donation. Win/win. The fact that we found someone who could use the artificial tree sitting in our basement? That’s one more win.

If this invasive species Christmas tree thing sounds familiar, that’s because we also did it two years ago.

This year it was out at Mildale Farm, a property typically used for events like weddings. Totally gorgeous and I’d only seen it from the road before.

Pretty quickly, I can see the appeal of tree farms for those who like a real tree. This is not an easy task, finding a tree out here in nature.

Reed and Lena kept saying “this one?” and “what about this one?”

The thing is, we’d already had a busy day, with the Christmas parade and we stopped by the school Christmas shops for the kids to do their shopping before we came. So, some people (cough Gus cough) were already feeling a bit cranky.

At some point, it was very clear to just pick a tree or spend out here all day.

We picked a tree.

Reed actually helped with the cutting this year, too. He doesn’t quite have it figured out yet, but he’s curious.

Reed also did almost all of the dragging the tree back to the spot where they drive it to the parking lot. It hurt his hands after awhile, but he didn’t want to hand it over.

When we got back to where you tag your tree for them to drive it back, Reed did everything. It’s completely him to be able to go find a tree, chop it down and drag it back almost entirely himself by age 7, but it still surprises me to see him actually do it.

So, after we dropped off our tree, there was this on our walk back to the car. Cider, hot chocolate, cookies and a fire.

The volunteers at this event are so hospitable. The couple serving the snacks and tending to the fire was a pleasure to talk to. And, all of the volunteers we interacted with were very friendly and welcoming.

I just love this– chopping down a wild tree, then sitting by a fire.

Picking an invasive wild tree does not get you the prettiest Christmas tree by any means. However, it is quite a fun experience!