Here's a fun Christmas tradition!

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit by even writing about taking down my tree when I haven't even scoured a tree lot yet this season....

I just can't help but remember how my dad used to dispose of our family Christmas trees.

After carefully removing all our ornaments and lights, he'd stroll into our family room with a tooth saw and start hacking away at the branches.  One by one he'd stack the dried kindling in a pile.  Then he'd go to work on the Christmas tree trunk.  Usually sawed it into 5 little logs...

Then he'd build a small fire in our fireplace....He'd sit on the hearth and patiently wait for the fire to really get roaring...Cozy.  Almost sentimental...

All of us kids sat in wonderment...Taking this entire post-Christmas ritual in...Maybe we'd learn a new tradition we could, in turn, share with our own children...A nice way to close out the holiday season...

That is until we realized why Dad built the fire.  One by one he'd pick up the dried Christmas tree branches, dried pine needles and all, and throw them into the fire.  A giant "WHOOOSH!" sound followed by searing heat and intense light would fill the room.

Our eyes formerly filled with wonderment now wide with terror...

The scariest part was those pine needles...They'd catch fire and fly around like tiny firey embers.  One year my sister's security blanket even caught fire.  True.  Or maybe Dad used it to put out a side fire from the main bonfire...can't remember.

Regardless, the only thing I learned from watching Dad burn our Christmas tree was that I would be dragging my dead tree to the curb January 2nd...

Good god that was terrifying...

See ya...