Ben by Daniel Shelton for December 07, 2021

Pencil trees are all the rage beside it doesn’t take many ornaments to decorate and packing up after Christmas is so much faster than with a traditional fat tree.

Just yell ‘Spread ’em!’

Somebody is missing an Italian Cypress?

Reminds me of the wartime tree we had when I was growing up. The branches were made of paper, twisted together on long wires, and each branch was attached to the main trunk (a long dowel rod) with paper tape of some sort. Daddy would take in out of its long cardboard tube, thunk it on the floor and all of the branches would fall open. When Christmas was over, he’d turn it upside down, thunk it on the floor again, and the branches would fall back against the trunk. Slide it back into the tube and roll it under the bed until next year.

Well, that’s funny!

Just click the remote and the branches will spread out.

When I was still buying live trees, the merchant would not net the tree until I had paid for it. Then, when back home with it, I would have to let that unmeshed tree rest and relax for awhile before it spread out to how it was on the tree lot. Here, I would tell Ben and Olivia to just be patient for awhile, but that would not be funny.

Ya gotta “Fluff” them. When I worked for a big box orange home center, they employed a special crew that did nothing but “fluff and flock” Christmas Tree displays. How would you like that on your resume? I was a “Fluffer & Flocker”. . . .

it is like when i got one of those memory foam mattress toppers and i had to wait for it to expand on its own after removing it from the box it came in; it expanded by the time i was ready for bed..

Give a good shake, Ben!

First clue might be it’s black (on my screen anyway)

Opposite of Clark Griswold