The ‘Grinch’ Who Stole

Our Tagged Christmas Tree

To the Editor:

Every Christmas, our family, like so many others, goes in search of the “perfect” Christmas tree. Everyone who has ever attempted this knows how difficult this can be. After several hours in the cold, tripping over hidden tree stumps, wrestling with tree branches and vines, climbing up and down hills, and excluding one tree after another because they are to small, to big, to thin, or to full, finally, just as you are about to give up hope, there it is, the one “perfect” tree that you have been searching for. 

With joy and relief you tag your tree, or as in our case double tag it and tie a red ribbon on top, with the strong belief that everyone knows the tree now belongs to you and no one, especially at Christmastime, would stoop so low as to remove the tags and cut down the tree.

On Thanksgiving weekend someone with total disregard for anyone other than themselves did stoop that low. Upon returning to Sam’s Tree Farm to cut our tree we stand in total disbelief when we discovered that the tree that had taken us so many hours to find was no longer there. The only remnant was a stump, and the tags and ribbon, which were carelessly tossed onto a nearby tree. As planned, our family would not be able to decorate our tree and we would once again have to begin the long search for another one.

According to Sam’s Tree Farm, unfortunately this occurs every year. They wish that everyone would respect the rights and feelings of other families an not remove tags. It is very upsetting for them to see the disappointment and disbelief on the faces of the families who return for their tree and discover that someone had removed their tag and cut it down. Please remember that if a tree is tagged someone has spent a lot of time and effort to find it and have the common decency to keep searching.

To the person or persons who so blatantly ignored the fact that the tree they cut down belonged to someone else, my only hope is that every time you look at “your” Christmas tree, adorned with lights and ornaments, that you also envision the yellow tags and red ribbon on top of the tree which you so maliciously removed.

We prefer to believe that there are more “Angels” than “Grinchs” in the world and will continue to tag our “perfect” tree every year with the faith that at Christmastime, a time of giving, sharing, love and good will towards all men, the spirit of Christmas will prevail, even at tree farms.

Denise Petruccelli

9 Putnam Drive, Newtown                                        December 3, 2007