Like a true husband with the holiday spirit, Dman was dispatched to find some ramekins for our Thanksgiving dinner; an hour and a half later, he shows up with a giant Christmas tree under his arm. Ramekins? “Well, babe, I couldn’t exactly carry the tree and the ramekins,” rolling his eyes like I must be dense. When the steam finally stopped pouring out of my ears, I had to admit that I was happy to finally have my first tree in my first grownup home of my own.
Dman and his BFF, Igor, set up the 7-foot sapin de Noel in a stand that was made out of a tree stump, cut lengthwise with a hole drilled into it to put the tree. As far as I could tell, there was no place to put water in that hole. I pointed it out to Dman, but he looked at me like I was crazy, “This is a Norman tree. They don’t need water. You can look it up!”
Okay.
Instead of challenging my husband at every turn, which I am often accused of doing, I decided to go with the French flow and trust him. Maybe the French really do grow an extraordinary type of tree that can be cut and unwatered and remain evergreen for a month. Maybe I’m really not right all the time about everything. (Nah, I am.) But I held my tongue.
Until about three days later when I noticed that Norman’s bottom branches had all wilted and his needles had fallen to the floor. “Hmm, that’s not good. This poor guy needs water!” I said to myself and promptly repeated it to hubby—who insisted that in France, no one puts their trees in water and that, in fact, no tree stands exist where you put water in them. “So all French Christmas trees are dry and dead by the time Christmas comes around then?” I queried. He didn’t find that very amusing and decided to look up what kind of tree stands can hold water. Lo and behold, he found one on Amazon and promptly ordered it.
The rub being that he left on one of his trips two days ago and the tree stand arrived today. I was planning to put it up myself, but the directions insist that the tree needs to be sliced again so that it can absorb water and some plastic bit needs to be hammered into the stump in order to hold it steady in the stand. Basically, way beyond my skill set.
So BFF Igor gets called and when I explain the situation to him and that he needs to come by with his saw, he says… wait for it….
“Christmas trees don’t need water.”
AARGH!!!!
**(But really, is this solely an American thing where we put our Christmas trees in water? Any French readers, please chime in! Other reader opinions welcome, too!)**
Tags: Amazon.com, Christmas tree, French custom, holiday spirit, Norman tree, ramekins, sapin de Noel, Thanksgiving, tree stand, water
Aha, no, he’s right!
I’ve never seen anybody putting his Xmas tree in water, be it in France or in Belgium. But some people probably do!
I discovered that Americans do that just a week ago or so and couldn’t get over it… I thought it was probably just a Floridian thing to do!
Then again, in my memories, we used to get our Xmas Tree later, like around mid-December, so it didn’t really have to survive a whole month.
And I know some tend to lose less needles than others (Nordmann supposedly last longer).
Hope it helps
Hey Cha! So happy to get your opinion–thanks for sharing
I love that you just found out the opposite of what I did about American trees! Funny. But yeah, getting the tree later makes sense if you’re not going to water it, but getting it a month in advance will just lead to a sad, wilted tree–like the one we have here!
Hello!
Love this blog, by the way! I’m from Norway, and we always put our Christmas trees in water. If not, it will lose all the needles before Christmas. So Maggie, you are totally right!
Lisa
Thanks, Lisa! It’s so funny but SO many French people seem stunned when I ask about putting the tree in water, “Why would you do that?” But then today, a woman told me that of COURSE you have to put it in water—clearly, there are opposing schools of thought here. I’m glad Norwegians believe in water for trees
XO~M
i’ll come this afternoon, we’ll cut the tree, put it in the water….. and we’ll see may be
we’ll have some flowers …. the first sapin de noel flowers in france !!!
xmas tree rescuer
Will see you tomorrow, rescuer!!
I’m a little late, but in Switzerland, we put the Christmas tree in water.
Better late than never, Silvia–plus it’s more people for my side of the debate! Thanks for reading and commenting. XO~M