Grandpa Art’s "foraged" Christmas tree

My grandfather Art’s foraged Christmas trees were memorable features of my childhood and not something I’ve ever encountered since.

He wouldn’t have used that term. And no, he did not tiptoe into some public woodlands or millionaire’s yard and filch a fir tree. Neither did he go to any of the numerous Christmas tree farms in northern Minnesota.

Rather, he made these trees – with his characteristic craftiness, frugality and wit – using a very odd technique. As my father explained years later in an email, “he saved a trunk from one year, cut low branches from a larger evergreen tree in the yard, drilled holes in the old trunk stem, and fit and shaped the fresh branches into the old trunk.”

The pruned branches came from his little conifer grove. He joked that he planted those pines just for that purpose. They never grew high enough to provide much shade for their house up on the rise of a hill on Idlewood Road, in Minnetonka, just west of Minneapolis.

My father, Stuart, often joked that Grandpa Art’s “trimmings tree” was more like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree – short and scraggly with more gaps than branches.

All the better, however, to show off hand-made arts-and-crafts decorations.

Later when my grandparents moved into a smaller place in town, he made a smaller version (shown above) that could stand on their living room coffee table.

My foraging instincts could probably be traced back to Grandpa Art. His territory wasn’t, like me, verdant yards and woodlands. He enjoyed  prowling for useful wood scraps in the trash bins behind hardware stores and wood working shops.

Anyway, there you have it: directions for making my Grandpa’s famous foraged Christmas trees. If any of you readers try it, send the Brew photos!