Based on where you look it up the German phrase “O Tannenbaum” it can mean “fir tree”, “pine tree” or simply “Christmas tree”.  

After searching for a real Christmas tree this season I am convinced, like a comedian I heard a few years ago, that “O Tannenbaum” is actually a profane phrase reserved for Christmas time.  

Some say it was a blight in North Carolina. Some point to global warming. Some claim financial issues prompted some farmers not to plant trees. Others blame supply chain issues.  

I admit I started looking for a tree a little later than usual, so maybe some of the blame is mine. Nevertheless, with Christmas producing enough stress already, searching endlessly for a tree didn’t need to be added to pressure cooker.  

I first checked with the business here in Shelbyville where I bought a very nice tree last year. There were no trees there, period, no matter what time of the season I had decided to shop.  

“O Tannenbaum!”  

Next, I returned to a Christmas tree farm outside the county where I had bought several great trees in the past. They ran out of trees and then received a new shipment, but no trees remaining were taller than six feet. I like an eight-foot tree that almost touches my living room ceiling, so a six-footer was not going to work.  

It didn’t matter though. A note on their website stated those trees were quickly scooped up before I could have driven there.  

“O Tannenbaum!”  

In desperation, I called a business in an adjoining county whose website promised all types of trees and all sizes. I called to see what the inventory was and after a clerk went to check, always a bad sign, I was told they had four or five left at $15 apiece. I really didn’t want to envision what a $15 tree might look like. Call me a Christmas tree snob...  

“O Tannenbaum!”  

I was ready to do something really out of character for me. I started looking at artificial trees. In my parents’ home and in my home for 64 years there has never been an artificial tree with presents around it.  

The prices of live or cut trees have been spiraling high enough in past years, but I was not prepared for the sticker shock of what a nice artificial tree would cost.  

“O Tannenbaum!”  

Feeling a little like the cartoon character Charlie Brown I was ready to take any cut tree I could find. As he said in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, “This little tree needs me”. After a couple of days of futility, those $15 trees were looking more attractive.  

However, this week there was a Christmas miracle.  

While looking at those dreaded and obscenely expensive artificial trees I ventured in the garden center and low and behold, there were several fresh cut trees. 

I found a seven-foot one, still a little shorter than I wanted. It isn’t as fat as tree as I would like. It isn’t perfect, but it will do.  

“O Tannenbaum!”