Maybe your family Christmas tradition includes driving to the parking lot in front of a department store that is closed, or was replaced by a second-hand store. Sometime, days before your arrival, a truck pulled up and dropped off a beat-up-old camper. Then some workers setup posts around the camper and strung orange twine through loops in the posts. Finally, a flatbed truck appeared loaded with the carcasses of nearly dead trees.

Is that really where you want to go for the Christmas tree you’ll bring into your home? Or, maybe it’s time for a new Christmas tradition – a new but very old Christmas tradition. Maybe you should consider cutting down your own tree.

When you cut down your own tree, you’re not trusting to some slick parking-lot tree salesman who tells you, “Sure these trees are fresh. They were cut down in Nova Scotia no more than a week or two ago.” You know the tree is fresh, when you cut it down, because you can see it with your own two eyes.

When you cut your own tree, you see how the tree actually looks. You’re not trying to guess how it will look after its frozen limbs, bundled tight against the trunk for the open truck ride of a thousand miles, will look once the tree warms and the limbs fall again. With a fresh-cut tree, you see how the tree will look because that’s how it looks when you buy it, well, other than with lights, tinsel and ornaments.

When it comes to cutting down your own tree, there’s no place better in McHenry County than Cal & Shan’s on the outskirts of Woodstock. There, the trees are carefully planted and nurtured. They’re trimmed with the experienced foresight of experts who know how a perfect Christmas tree needs to grow.

Instead of driving to a parking lot, when you cut your own at Cal & Shan’s, you’re driving to a tree farm. You’re communing with nature. If you’d rather have someone from Cal & Shan’s do the actual cutting, they can do that. But, in terms of a Christmas tradition, nothing beats cutting your own Christmas tree.

It’s sometimes hard to change Christmas traditions. But, some are worth changing. This is certainly the case when you cut your own. And the price, whether your tree is big or small, is $50. Compare that to the price of the trees in the parking lot.

People have cut their own Christmas trees for centuries. Parking lot sales of Christmas trees are a 20th Century phenomenon. Which, then, is more of a tradition?

Read How One of Our Customers Found the Perfect Tree

Rick and I had the most wonderful time shopping for the perfect tree at Cal & Shan’s Tree Farm in Woodstock. When you arrive you are greeted by an elf who can take you the type of tree you would prefer. The best part is the price. Any size tree for $50.00 .Since you cut it down yourself you know it will not die on you in a few days. We have had that happen to us once. Before visiting the farm, we stopped by a tree place right by Jewel and the pre- cut tree went for $100.

Betty D. – McHenry

Cal & Shan’s Christmas Tree Farm is open this weekend only – Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 6 and 7, at 14216 Thayer Road, Woodstock.