San Francisco: December 2014

Last year we thought about getting a real Christmas tree, but we couldn't find the time because we had just moved into our new flat. And we probably wouldn't have found the box with Christmas decorations in time for the holidays anyway as we had a lot to unpack and find a place for after our transatlantic move.

So we settled for a miniature plastic tree.

But this year we were determined to get that perfect Christmas tree! And there's only one place to go for Christmas trees around here - Santa's Tree Farm!

Christmas Tree Valley

We drove down to Half Moon Bay and navigated through what can only be described as Christmas tree valley.

Everywhere car we met driving in the opposite direction had a tree mounted to the roof, and everywhere we looked we saw one tree farm after another - but we kept driving until we found Santa's Tree Farm. We had seen their website and we were sold on choosing and cutting our very own American Christmas tree!

That Perfect Tree

Back in Sweden and England, there's not that much choice in terms of what actual type of Christmas tree to get, at least not in central London or Ronney! You see the tree at the supermarket and you buy it.

You have no idea what type of tree it actually is, and in all honesty you don't really care. Its a Christmas tree and the main two choices are plastic or real.

Here we had a choice of no less than six types of trees to choose from (including Douglas Fir, Concolor Fir, Montery Pine, Noble Fir, Grand Fir and Redwood) and acres and acres of tree plantations to walk through and search for your own perfect tree.

We weren't quite sure which type of tree we'd like so we decided to walk around and get a feel for them. Secretly I hoped we'd like the Redwood trees the most - because I just loved going to the Redwood forest and seeing the 2,000 year old giants. But of course I wasn't sure what they'd look like as tiny little Christmas baby trees!

Anyway - we found the entrance to Santa's village, they gave us a saw and off hunting we went.

First Sight

As soon as we parked our car I ran into someone who was loading a tree into their truck. The tree looked so special I had to ask about it - and no surprise, it was a Redwood tree and he pointed out where we could find them.

After that, our first stop was the Redwood plantation and I was ready to saw one right there and then, but Jelte wanted to see the rest of the trees before making a decision.

How 'bout this one?

I've never seen so many trees. There were skinny ones, round ones, fluffy ones, white ones and shaggy looking trees all around and after about an hour Jelte had spotted and chosen probably ten trees that he liked.

So many trees!

But there was something not quite right about any of them.

After a while I realised what the problem was - they had all been pruned into perfect Christmas tree shapes! I thought that made them look a bit like shaved Golden Retrievers - perfect shape and smooth to the touch, but incredibly unnatural and wrong looking at the same time!

I guess growing up in the countryside has made me pickier than most when it comes to trees.

Jelte realised I wouldn't budge and he agreed to us getting a Redwood tree - hurrah! :-)

Back to the Redwood Plantation we went in search for our perfect tree.