Christmas Trees

It’s December, and even though we’re nestled down near the bottom of the world, it is still Christmas time in New Zealand. It is a bit odd getting ready for Santa’s arrival as the days get longer and sunnier. Temperature-wise, however, it doesn’t seem that much different from Austin. The highs are in the 60s and lows in the 50s. And just like back in Texas, its not Christmas time without a tree, and we finally put ours up yesterday. I was surprised that there were so many differences between our Christmas tree shopping experience here versus in Austin. So you’re not caught surprised, here’s what I noticed:

Artificial trees show up early: I swear I saw my first Christmas display with artificial trees is a Farmers back in August. I think most stores in the US have the decency to wait until at least October. Now I realize there are a few outlying craft and discount stores that start earlier (Garden Ridge, for example) but a main department store? I don’t recall seeing Christmas until October.

Live trees show up late: Live trees, on the other hand, don’t show up until the first of December. In Austin, live tree stands start popping up shortly before Thanksgiving. This was great if you were one of those people who took advantage of the mini-break to go crazy with decorations, but in New Zealand, there isn’t a convenient holiday like Thanksgiving to demarcate the start of the Christmas season, so the beginning of December is it.

Live trees are FRESH: and by fresh, I mean they are chopped down in the morning and delivered to tree selling stations around town by midday. The trees are propped up in buckets of water to keep them as fresh as possible before they go to their new homes. All of the trees I saw in Texas were cut down in places like Montana, condensed in those large nets, loaded onto huge trucks, and brought down to Texas over a few days. By the time they arrived at a tree stand, their branches were crushed up, and they had been without water for quite some time.

The Kiwi Trees are a different tree: The primary type of tree in New Zealand is Pinus Radiata, a very full, dense tree with long needles about 5 inches long. In the United States, there were multiple options for trees: Douglas Firs, Noble Firs, perhaps a Norway Spruce. Typically they had shorter needles and were less dense in their foliage, which can be nice for hanging ornaments.

Tree stands have limited stock: We were shocked driving by different tree stands in Auckland that only had a handful of trees at any given time. The stands are everywhere - sometimes just down the road from each other, but may only have four or five trees at a time! We saw one that had around twenty, but that is nothing in comparison to the huge American lots that have hundreds of trees and several different varieties to choose from. Our kids kept asking, “Where are all of the trees?”

Kiwi trees are smaller: We got the tallest tree we could find, and it is barely taller than my husband. Granted, he is 6’6, but it is funny to see him next to such a short tree. Most trees we saw were substantially shorter - somewhere in the four foot range. All of the trees are much, much narrower than in the US, too. Our tree is under three feet in diameter at the widest point. Needless to say, we have a ton of ornaments an decorations left in the box this year. There just wasn’t enough room.

Tree lights don’t connect: We needed to get new Christmas lights as the voltage and plugs are different in New Zealand. We were shocked to discover that it wasn’t guaranteed that the end of one strand of lights plugs into the beginning of the next strand. In fact, this is considered an “add-on” light system and was only available with one type of larger light bulb that we didn’t really like. In addition to getting several strands of 200 lights, we also had to get a power strip to plug everything into.

We’re ready for Santa now. He can come in his shorts and jandals (Kiwi for flip flops) and leave presents under our skinny, not-too-tall tree, and we’ll head down to the beach after opening presents. Merry Christmas everyone!