Bright's Christmas Tree Farm

On the first day of December, my true love gave to me -- a mini-road trip out to Back Bay to cut down our own Christmas tree! Specifically, we headed for Bright's Christmas Tree Farm, which is pretty much an evergreen-lover's paradise. The weather was unseasonably warm (we didn't even need coats) but the smell of pine in the air was enough to make up for that and things felt all exciting and extra-Christmas-y.

Turns out picking a Christmas tree is pretty complicated, especially when you're two. And your parents keep telling you to pick a BIG Christmas tree -- all of them look pretty big when you're just about three feet tall. Anouk fell deeply in love with a few Charlie Brown trees and threw her arms around their scraggly little bodies and did not want to let them go.

After some quick talking, we were able to persuade her that a nice 6-foot white pine was more the way to go. We alerted the Brights that we were ready to cut by waving a huge bendy white stick in the air until they found us in the sea of trees. This might have been the best part -- we all took turns waving it. The tree was cut and loaded on the top of our car, and then we took him (Anouk says it's definitely a boy) home and set him up in our living room, which is now the best-smelling place on earth.

Bright's is open Saturday and Sunday, from 8 to 5, and has all sorts of wreaths, garlands, ciders, jams and jellies besides their trees ($6 per foot for long needles and $8 per foot for short-needle varieties). It's a hike if you're coming from Norfolk or the peninsula, but worth the drive if you can make it. I promise.

Have you put up your Christmas tree yet?