mattrixs

This Kind of Story Just Chokes Me Up!!

Psy-Fi

A green Christmas always beats a white Christmas.

__________________

She's a Brick House

Ruby Slipper

Bumping the thread again. I'll share a christmas story here because it's one of my personal faves. I call it "the christmas crooks."

Back in the '90s, I fell for a guy in college and we started dating after college, eventually moved in together. He was working as a graphic designer in the advertising department of the small independent newspaper in town. Clients would talk to the ad reps about the kind of ad they'd want to place in the paper, the ad reps would bring the ideas back to the graphic design department, and my boyfriend or one of the other designers would come up with a couple of designs to share with the client and hopefully they'd pick one to use for their ad.

One year, a guy from the local christmas tree farm showed up and wanted to place an ad in the paper. My boyfriend worked up a couple of designs and gave them to the ad rep, who shared them with the client. The client liked the designs, picked one and his ad ran in the paper. He was so pleased, he told the ad rep to tell the graphic designer that he could pick out a tree at the christmas tree farm and get it at a discount.

My boyfriend and I were living together by that time, had our first apartment together, so we thought it would be cool to have a christmas tree that year. This was a perfect opportunity. So one Friday after work, we decided to drive out to the christmas tree farm, pick out our discounted tree and bring it back home. And that's exactly what we did. Got in his car, drove out to the christmas tree farm about 45 minutes away and went to pick out our tree.

Now, the christmas tree farm was part of a tourist attraction off the main highway known as "Santa Claus Lane," with a gift shop, "tap room," and a kiddie christmas choo-choo train that ran around the place on a track. It was closed for most of the year, but opened up in December for the holidays. It had been around for years and gotten a little rundown since I'd first visited it as a kid (although perhaps it was just as rundown in the '70s and my childhood memories paint it in a better light).

Whatever the case, by the time my boyfriend and I got there around 8 p.m. on a cold December Friday night, there didn't seem to be anyone around. Santa Claus Lane was empty. Even the christmas tree farm behind the gift shop seemed to be closed. We could see the strings of lights hanging overhead, but none of the lights were on. Which was odd because you'd think the place would be buzzing with activity just a week or so before christmas, trying to do as much business as possible before closing up shop for the year. It didn't make sense.

A trucker had pulled off the highway and parked his rig on the far side of Santa Claus Lane, using their side parking lot as a rest stop. No truck lights were on and he seemed to be tucked in for the night. Other than the trucker and us, no one else was around. It felt completely eerie to be there.

But we wanted our christmas tree. And we did walk around the whole lot in good faith, looking for someone to take our money. We just couldn't find anyone there. We had, however, found the perfect sized christmas tree, about 3 feet tall, perfect for our small apartment. That's the one we wanted.

Before I had a chance to say a word, the boyfriend tucked the tree up under his arm and started walking towards the car. I figured I better keep up, saw him quickly open the back and push the tree inside. We got in the car without a word and quickly peeled out of the parking lot without the headlights on, trying not to be seen. ...Not that there was anyone around to see us, but we were just being careful, just in case. Once on the highway, we just kind of looked at each other, too stunned by our actions to know whether we should crack up or not. Neither of us had ever done anything like that before. We drove home and got the tree set up in our little living room, the perfect size.

It was a cozy little christmas at our place that year with the perfect little tree... which we'd stolen from a vacant christmas tree lot and never got caught for it. To this day, I still have no idea why there was no one working at Santa Claus Lane that Friday night. But who knew a little larceny could make the holidays so much fun? We got a kick out of being christmas crooks that year.

Drjohnrock

Well, you certainly got a very big discount on the tree.

Did you ever find out why the place was deserted? Sounds like the place very abruptly closed for some reason, or maybe the owner didn't pay the employees and they all left.

Ruby Slipper

No. As I wrote in my post, we never discovered why no one was there. That's why the whole experience was so weird. And if I remember correctly, I think my boyfriend even had a scheduled time with the tree lot guy. The guy had told him to come after 8 p.m. or something, and then we show up and no one's there. That's partially why we felt empowered to steal the tree. We figured we were told to be there at a specific time and if they couldn't hold up their end of the bargain, we might as well get what we came for anyway. That certainly wasn't our normal, but the whole situation was so weird, that's what happened.