The Life of a Christmas Tree

By Richard Ham

As the title refers, this is a story about a living Christmas tree named Jasper. In the beginning, Jasper himself explains how he came to be from seed to sprout at his birthplace at Christy Farms. It is there that he makes friends with his growing tray mates and a large orange orb known as a pumpkin named Oscar.

Jasper was a slow gr

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Mar 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643671529

Richard Ham

Grew up in Boulder City, Nevada, and currently resides in Las Vegas. Married, has four grown children and two grandkids. Was a chef at a major hotel for many years, and I'm currently a head chef at a major grocery chain. Hobbies are deep involvement in racing in the NASCAR weekly series, remote control cars and boats, and fishing. Other involvements include helping my daughter promote animal adoption and assisting with her in the care of homeless animals.

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The Life of a

Christmas Tree

RICHARD HAM

The Life of a Christmas Tree

Copyright © 2018 by Richard Ham. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, descriptions, entities, and incidents included in the story are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, and entities is entirely coincidental.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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URLink Print and Media is committed to excellence in the publishing industry.

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Published in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-64367-153-6 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64367-152-9 (Digital)

Fiction

05.12.18

This story has been typed for a very few special people who I value and have supported my efforts: my wife, daughter, mom, and sister. Thank you for that support along the way. And a special thank you to Martin Pinzon for being there from the beginning and having so much faith. Hope you’ll enjoy this story as much as I did writing it. It is one of my favorites and one I’m most proud of.

Sincerely,

Richard Ham

To my daughter Brittany,

This story is for you. You have always had a love for books that started at a very young age. Because of this, you inspired me to take up writing. My only regret with this story is that I didn’t think to write it a few years earlier.

It would have been fun to gather on the couch or to read this as a bedtime story during the holiday season. It was those very times of doing that with all the other books we read together that gave me the desire to write this story so that others may do the same with this story.

Love,

Dad

Contents

Jasper’s Introduction

Chapter 1: Days on Christy Farms

Chapter 2: The Contests

Chapter 3: Heading to My Destination

Chapter 4: The Edwards House

Chapter 5: The Strangers of Christmas

Chapter 6: 25th of December

Chapter 7: Moments to the End

Chapter 8: My Final Destiny

From the Author

Jasper’s Introduction

Hello, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jasper and I’m a thirty-year-old evergreen tree or more commonly known as a Douglas pine. I am not your typical everyday neighborhood pine tree, though that is how I am now serving out my years. I had the distinct honor of being a Christmas tree. It is the reason I wish to share my life story to anyone who is interested.

Even as a Christmas tree, I wasn’t just you’re run-of-the-mill holiday tree, no siree Bob. I was born and raised in a coastal town known as Half Moon Bay, California, and my actual home was on a place called Christy Farms. Christy Farms wasn’t just an ordinary farm either. It was a farm known for its award-winning Christmas trees and pumpkins. I’ll explain more about the pumpkins that shared the land on the farm later. No pun intended, but I have stardom in my family tree and in my seed lines. The award-winning Christy Farms over the years has raised two presidential trees that were sent to our nation’s capital. A very large tree was sent to New York’s Rockefeller Square. Then a tree of the same size as mentioned above was sent from Christy Farms to our servicemen overseas in Europe during World War II. All this said, I am of the best Christmas tree stock possible.

1

Days on Christy Farms

This is how I came to be. I had to be told this part myself, as I wasn’t alive yet. At a certain part of the year, Christy Farms plants a crop of Christmas trees. I was known as the crop of 1984, even though that was still some years in the future. That was the year I was to be ready as a Christmas tree. Christy Farms has a series of greenhouses on its property. Each greenhouse has its own caretaker, or say, tree farmer. My seed was planted in greenhouse number three. Even though all the farmers are the best of the best, they still try to outdo each other and raise the best Christmas tree. I was lucky my caretaker was one of the best Christmas tree farmers ever. Her name was Sonia Christy, yes you guested it she was a fourth-generation tree farmer from this very farm. Not only did she have years of family experience and knowledge, she went to the university to learn even more about how to raise us Christmas trees. Our best benefit was that Sonia loved her job on the farm and that love carried over to us. For instance, the trees in other greenhouses were known only as #62, #56, #04, and so on. Sure, I had a number, too, and I still remember it, and officially I was number 166. I, as others in greenhouse number three was one step better than the rest of the trees on the farm. Our caretaker, Sonia, gave us each an actual name. A few weeks had gone by with my seed buried in the soil. It was in those weeks that I came to be. I started to have my first thoughts and feelings. I believe this all started when my seed sprouted roots. I also believe my roots must have grown some in order for me to become aware. The first sensation I ever remember was a tingly feeling somewhere deeper in the soil. That’s how I became aware that I did in fact have roots. I would get these feelings for two reasons. One was when my roots would grow, and the other was when the worms would work their way through my roots. I began to like the worms; they kept the soil soft for my fragile new roots and they kept me company.

My next new feeling came when I sprouted my trunk from the seed from which I started. From there, I had the urge to grow upward toward the warmth. The farther up the soil I grew, the warmer it got and the better I would feel; now I knew what to expect. The farther down my roots went caused my trunk to move higher through the soil and the stronger I got.

A day had come when I knew I would cross some unknown barrier. I had no idea what was on the other side but I was excited to find out. I was getting tired of the dirt and the darkness. There were certain signs that notified me that some form of change was coming. The soil above me remained a constant and pleasant temperature and I could now feel vibrations happening above me. Something was up above and I could hardly wait to see what it was. Then, without a warning, it happened. I broke through the barrier. My sprout of a trunk broke through the surface of the soil into the free air. It was warm in the open air but still dark; I expected to see light as the last few days in the soil were getting lighter and lighter. I wasn’t feeling any of the vibrations that I was feeling over the last few days either. I wasn’t very impressed with my first hours in the atmosphere; it was still dark and lonely.

To my delight, after just a few hours, the darkness slowly gave way to the light that I was searching for. I ended up watching my first ever sunrise. It was the first and most amazing spectacle that I’d ever seen. With the new day’s light, I was able to see my new surroundings. I was in a small square dirt compartment in a tray of many other equal size and shape compartments. My location in the tray had been almost in the center. Taking a look around me, I saw that a lot of other trees had already broken the surface some time ago. Those trees had already done some growing also. All my neighbors on all four sides were amongst the trees that I had just mentioned of.

I then got to meet my new neighbors.

Hey, fellas, get a load of the scrawny new guy who only now just sprouted, said the tree to my right.

Then the tree behind me said, That ain’t a new guy, that’s just a weed growing there that seed has gone belly up by now, I’m sure.

The tree to my left said, No, I think Frank is right. That’s a tree all right. It’s just tiny, that’s all. What do you think, Joey?

I say we just leave the poor little guy alone. After all, we all started out that way ourselves, said the tree in front of me.

Okay, okay. You’re right, Joey. Welcome to the club, my boy. I’m Dino. The tree to your right is Frank, the guy behind you is Sammy, and the tree in front of you is Joey. We all got our names from our caretaker, Sonia. We were all named after some singing and comedian group from some years ago, said Dino, the tree on my right.

Well, nice to meet you guys. My name is ah, ah…well I’m… I didn’t know how to answer; I didn’t know what my name was.

Jasper! Sonia has been talking to your empty space and calling you by name for some days now, answered Sammy, the tree behind me.

Well, I guess my name is Jasper then, but who is Sonia? I asked.

The Rat Pack, as the other trees were known as, then explained to me just the same way as I have told you about Sonia. That and experiencing Sonia’s care for myself. Life in greenhouse number three, known as the nursery to the tree farmers, lasted about six months from the time I sprouted. In that time, all the trees that did sprout were growing into was to become future Christmas trees. All that time, Sonia fed and watered us, plucked out our weeds, talked to us, and even provided music for us to listen to. Even with all the special care, I remained smaller than the rest of the trees. The Rat Pack gang I had as neighbors had a lot of fun at my expense because of my size on a daily basis.

We had all gotten spoiled and overly used to the attention in greenhouse number three. Two events caused our lives to change, however. The first had to do with Joey. He had dropped out from participating in our conversations. Even the large conversations that had involved all the trees in the tray. Joey was no longer as green as the rest of us either. All the other trees in our tray continued to grow, but Joey had stopped. I was even able to catch up to him. Sonia gave Joey an examination and determined that he had a disease known as root rot and began giving him medication. The medicine seemed to help for a while as Joey had become talkative again and had regained some of his color.

Joey’s recovery was sadly only temporary. The following week, he rapidly lost all of his green color and turned brown. Within two days of turning brown, Joey no longer spoke at all. The following day, Sonia removed Joey and the dirt he lived in from our nursery tray. We were all deeply saddened by the loss of Joey, but such is life on a tree farm. This unfortunate event had happened to several other saplings in our tray over the course of our stay in the nursery. Even so, we were still considered a good crop over all. After the removal of Joey, we were all given preventive medication as Sammy began to show signs of root rot too. Unlike Joey, Sammy was able to make a full recovery from the illness.

The second of the life-changing events came when it was time for our nursery tray to leave greenhouse number three. All of us had mentioned to each other that our roots had become uncomfortable. This was because all of us, even me being the smallest tree, had outgrown our compartments in the nursery tray. All of our root systems began to hit the bottom of our little compartments. Sonia recognized this right away and wasted no time in solving the problem. After picking up our nursery tray and examining the drainage holes underneath, she saw our roots.

It’s time for you, kids, to go outside, Sonia said to us all.

Outside! someone in our tray exclaimed.

What is outside? another tree had asked.

One of the other trees in our tray had heard before about the outside mentioned and described. She then began to explain what the outside was to us. She told us that there were two older crops of Christmas trees there, along with some large orange vegetables called pumpkins.

Someone then asked, What do they do and what is their purpose?

A girl tree answered the question by saying that pumpkins were grown to help celebrate Halloween and that they talked a lot but were of no harm. The girl tree concluded her conversation by saying, If we wanted to see what the ‘outside’ was; all we had to do is look ahead out the greenhouse window to the bigger trees on the other side of the glass.

We then took her advice and did just that. After doing so, we had concluded that the outside didn’t look all that threatening." We had become comfortable with having to go outside, seeing and knowing that there were other Christmas trees there also. Then it was my own neighbor Dino who reinstated all of our fears all over again.

Hey, if we are outside we won’t have Sonia to take care of us anymore. Then we could very well end up just like Joey did.

Dino’s comment caused a lot of trees in our tray to agree with his thoughts.

Our fears were unfounded the day we were taken outside. It was Sonia who took us and the other trays she was in care of too. She was going to be our caretaker on the outside also. It was time for another tree farmer to plant his or her seeds in greenhouse number three to start a brand-new crop of Christmas trees.

The space where Sonia had planted her crop of trees was between a crop of older Christmas trees and a pumpkin patch. She had dug out each and everyone’s holes in the earth then planted us all in our new homes. She gave us all pep talks and words of encouragement while doing so. Sonia had told me personally that she had faith in me and that I needed to grow up and catch up with the rest of the crop. Better yet, grow even taller than the rest to show them all up. I was then pulled out of my nursery tray. Being able to stretch my cramped roots felt good. Sonia then placed me into my new earthen home. Sonia then gently packed nutrient-rich soil around my roots to tuck me into my new home. Sonia had given all of her crop the same treatment.

After our transplant, the Rat Pack and I slept a lot the entire new crop did. As comforting as Sonia tried to be for her crop of trees, we still had gotten a mild case of shock from going from a controlled environment to a natural one. Due to Sonia’s efforts, we were the least affected out of any other of the transplanted trees on the farm. Sonia’s crop rebounded from the shock faster than the rest of the farmers’ tree crops.

The outside took some getting used to; the temperature change was the hardest. It would warm up during the day and then cool of a lot at night due to the marine layer that would arrive from the Pacific Ocean. It was also uncomfortable for all of us trees once our roots outgrew the nursery soil that was put in our holes. Now our roots began to penetrate the natural soil of the earth and we were experiencing growing pains. As with anything, once we conquered the new environment changes, we began to like them.

Some trees were resistant to change and would reminisce about the good old days in greenhouse number three. Other than for the conversation, I thought the talk was silly. We were all growing up; it wasn’t possible to return to the nursery to live permanently. Personally, I grew to love our current environment and it showed. I had gotten a rapid growth spurt. After being a slow grower for so long, I was now catching up to height of the others on a weekly basis. Sonia even complimented me on my accomplishment. The Rat Pack consisting of Dino, Frank, and Sammy teased me about that all week.

Oh Jasper I’m so proud of you, I just knew you would grow up, You can do it, I have faith. The Rat pack would repeat Sonia’s words, mimicking her voice. It was the only material they could use against me these days. The short tree jokes had to stop now that I was nearly as tall as any of the Rat Pack. I liked the outside for other reasons. Other than just having a growth spurt, I had made some friends. I was planted on the last row of the Christmas tree grove so I had some different neighbors. They were these giant orange gourds known as pumpkins. During my tenure on the farm, I got to see a lot of crops of pumpkins grow up and leave the farm. I always got along with the pumpkins in the patch behind us. Not all the Christmas trees in