Look at my new pillow cover. You know that I prefer covers to pillows because they are so much easier to store. You just fold up covers and stash them away. I got this one right after Thanksgiving and I love it.
You've seen the pillow pattern of a red pickup truck with a Christmas tree sticking out the back of it. I think it's cute, but I particularly like the station wagon version because it takes me down memory lane. Growing up, we had a station wagon with faux woodgrain on the side (popular in the 60s and 70s) and while it was yellow rather than red, it did have a tree tied to its roof each December. Our family tradition was to drive to rural MO and walk the fields of the Christmas tree farm until we found just the right tree. My parents, sister and I would vote for which one we thought was best and then we would help our dad saw it down. Our mother liked to save the extra boughs from the bottom of our selected tree and use those for decorative purposes. My dad would carry it through the field back to where the staff would shake and bind the tree while the four of us would mosey around inside the barn. They sold wreaths and large tree bows and Styrofoam cups of hot chocolate in the drafty old structure. You could warm your hands in the heat of the fire which roared in a metal drum, though, and the strong smell of pine would delight your nose! We went through this ritual each year because an artificial was never a consideration. Once the lovely green pine was placed in its stand in the living room, we would decorate it with the shiny gold angel on top and load the branches with keepsake ornaments. That did not represent the end of our obligation, though, because each day we would crawl under the pokey branches to water the tree. Even keeping it hydrated did not prevent the needle-drop process, though, so we'd have to pick- up the piercing needles when we found them on the carpet. Real trees cannot safely be kept inside a toasty warm house for sustained periods of time, of course, so we planned accordingly. Real trees remained part of the Christmas tradition even after I was married...for a few years anyway. In the interim, artificial trees began looking more and more realistic. While we still loved our real trees, we were slightly less fond of the negatives. There was the year the tree toppled over due to a weak stand and a special ornament broke. Then once, the metal stand rusted (without our knowledge) from the inside and the discolored water leaked on the carpet and that required professional carpet cleaning. Equally disappointing was the pitch that stuck to the tree skirt and carpet. Somewhere around the same time we saw a handsome faux tree and we decided to buy it. It came home in a box stuffed in the backseat rather than being tied to the roof. That was back in the days when I only did ONE tree so you know that was long ago! What we bought really was realistic in the detail from the pine needles down to its shape. We were satisfied and so, pretty quickly, made the switch from messy real to convenient fake. Now I own a dozen artificials. They can go up whenever you wish and can be kept up a month. There is no threat of water on the rug or of clogging the vacuum with the needles. An artificial tree won't meet my standards unless it looks like the real deal and I am satisfied with all I have. The one thing you can't replicate is the pine smell and I do miss that a lot. Still, I fondly recall the days of the real tree experience...down to tying it to the roof of the family station wagon!
Have a holly jolly Christmas!