Is it too early for a Christmas tree?
Thanksgiving is still days away, but that didn’t stop some from loading their families in the car and heading out to get this year’s Christmas tree.
“Considering Thanksgiving is early, we decided to get ours early,” Ally Wagner said. “So, ever since we moved to D.C., we’ve been coming every year to get a real beautiful Christmas tree.”
For the last five years, Wagner and her husband Michael McCabe have made Butler’s Orchard in Germantown, Maryland, part of their holiday tradition.
This year, their young children ran up and down the rows of trees until they found the perfect one.
“We always try to get an 8-foot Fraser fir,” said McCabe.
While Wagner held her daughter Guinevere in her arms, she laughed as she remembered the special surprise they found in their tree two years ago.
“We got a Christmas tree that had an old bird’s nest still in it. Luckily no bird was still living in the tree. We considered it a good-luck charm and we kept it in the tree,” explained Wagner.
While Wagner and McCabe’s yearly visits to Butler’s Orchard is a well established tradition, another couple making their first trip to the farm are both members of the military.
Andrew was dragging a tree as he followed his wife Molly, who was pushing their daughter in a stroller.
“We just cut down our first Christmas tree with our baby girl,” said Andrew, who serves in the Army. Andrew’s wife Molly is a member of the Navy, and this is their first Christmas living in Maryland.
Andrew grew up in Washington State, while Massachusetts is Molly’s home state.
Andrew told WTOP that both he and his wife grew up cutting down their own Christmas trees.
“We are both continuing the tradition in our family now,” said Andrew. “It was awesome. It was a little bit harder than we thought. We brought our old saw which was a little duller than the ones they have here.”
As Molly and Andrew headed to the crew at Butler’s to prepare their tree for the ride home, Molly mentioned that her experience today was less stressful than Andrew’s.
“It was great, I didn’t do any of the heavy lifting,” said Molly. “Me and baby girl just watched dad do all the hard work.
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