Picture it:

A family sitting in the living room, “It’s a Charlie Brown Christmas” is on, and they’re all enjoying hot chocolate on Christmas Eve. Charlie and his friends find a little, living tree, and make it beautiful, make it their own for Christmas, even though it’s not big and fancy, like some of the fake trees they’ve looked at.

What a sweet show, the family might think. And then they look at their own tree. It’s plastic. It was pre-decorated. There was no time spent decorating it, just time spent assembling it.

Sure, it might be a little cleaner. And it might be a little less expensive. But when so much of Christmas has moved away from spending time with family and moved toward quick-fix purchases, perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to move back toward natural trees.

I can think of many times as a child, my family and I the day after Thanksgiving would go to the Christmas tree farm, and we’d pick out a tree and cut it down. We’d bring it home, stand it up, and pull out the decorations. Christmas music would play. We’d spend time together as a family.

Living Christmas trees are not about the season, they’re about spending time with family. With this season turning plastic, let at least one thing remain: the time spent with those we love, even if it’s just to decorate a little old Christmas tree.