I hope you enjoy this post by our friend Dr. Jill Sidebottom.  I may be a bit bias as that is my husband Buddy and our little angel Helen! 

Yes, Virginia, It's OK to Use A Real Christmas Tree!

In 1897 on this date, September 21, the most famous newspaper editorial ever written in the English language "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" was printed in the New York Sun. Editor Francis Church's response to a little girl questioning if there was a Santa Claus, has survived more than 100 years.

People today question the use of a real tree to celebrate Christmas. After all, isn't it wrong to cut down a tree to use just for a few weeks? Some reason that using the same old plastic Christmas "tree" is better for the environment. Should we feel guilty about enjoying a real tree?

In the spirit of Francis Church, there is only one response. "Yes, Virginia, it's OK to use a real Christmas tree!" After all, the Christmas tree reminds us in the dead of winter of the beauty of nature and life. That can't be done with a big plastic brush. A fake "tree" was never alive. It never provided a perch for a bird or had a butterfly rest on its branches. A deer or bear never brushed past it. It never felt the pull of the sun to make it break bud and grow.

So what if it's cut down? Another will be planted in its place to provide a home for butterfly and bird. The old tree will be recycled. If the family accounted for all the trees cut down for the paper used in the household through the year, this use of this one small tree fades into insignificance.

But the real Christmas tree is not insignificant. The scent of it -- the feel of it -- can not be compared to plastic. It's role as the center of the Christmas festivities makes it a part of the family. As Arthur Sower with the US Forest Service wrote in 1949, "...there is no reason why the joy associated with the Christmas evergreen may not be a means of arousing in the minds of children an appreciation of the beauty and usefulness of trees; and keen appreciation of the beauty and usefulness of trees is a long step toward the will to plant and care for them." 

Don't we have enough plastic from China already in our lives? Shouldn't a really great Christmas have a great real tree?

So yes, Virginia. It's OK to use a real tree to wait for Santa on Christmas Eve. It will make the Jolly Old Elf smile to himself to think that not all the traditions of yesteryear have not been forgotten.

One of the many blessings of growing in Laurel Springs, NC was the long Sunday drives my family always took North or South on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  My father is 75 years old and recalls the days when the Parkway to be the only paved road in this part of the mountains.  Whether easing through a foot of snow or driving in and out of clouds of heavy fog, the Blue Ridge Parkway is always a stunning reminder of the beauty around us here in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Meadows of Doughton Park!  Beautiful place to fly kites! Visiting the Blue Ridge Parkway is for the adventurer of any age.  We travel with our parents, hike the boulder and waterfall trails with our ten year old twin boys and chase or 2 year old little girl across the meadows at Doughton Park where we often fly kites in the spring and summer. 

Go for adventure with your family this year! Come up the mountain and enjoy one of my favorite National Parks, you may just decide to stay! 

 “The Blue Ridge Parkway is many things. It is the longest road planned as a single unit in the United States. It is an elongated park, protecting significant mountain landscapes far beyond the shoulders of the road itself. It is a series of parks providing the visitor access to high mountain passes, splendid natural “gardens” of flowering mountain plants, waterfalls and water gaps, deep forests and upland meadows. It is a continuous series of panoramic views, the boundaries of its limited right-of-way rarely apparent and miles of the adjacent countryside seemingly a part of the protected scene. It is a “museum of the managed American countryside,” preserving the rough-hewn log cabin of the mountain pioneer, the summer home of a textile magnate, and traces of early industries, such as logging railways and an old canal. It is miles of split-rail fence, moss on a wood shingle roof, broomcorn and flax in a pioneer garden. It is the fleeting glimpse of a deer, a wild turkey or a red fox, or for those who prefer their animal life less wild, herds of cows grazing in pastures or horses trotting in fields. It is a chain of recreational areas, offering motorists a spot to picnic in the woods, a place to sleep overnight in a campground or a charming lodge, as well as opportunities to refuel their vehicle, enjoy a meal, or purchase a piece of fine regional handiwork. It is the product of a series of major public works projects that helped the Appalachian region climb out the depths of the Great Depression. The Blue Ridge Parkway is all these things and much more, therefore it should come as no surprise that this is the most heavily visited unit of the National Park Service.” - http://blueridgeparkway75.org/more-than-a-road/history

 Lil’ Grandfather Choose and Cut is proud to be an Integrated Pest Management Farm (IPM).  By leaving wildflowers and field buffers throughout the Christmas trees and horse pastures, we provide habitat for all sorts of creatures.  Hummingbird moths are one of our favorite inhabitants of the farm.  They arrive in the flower beds close to dusk and feed on the Phlox, monarda, and wild butterfly weed.   Below is a shallowtail butterfly enjoying a rest on a huge Joe Pye Weed.  We are so blessed to live in such a diverse and beautiful place!