Pining for Perfection

Across Ventura County on Saturday, the hunt was on.

From the pine-scented rows of a farm in Santa Paula to the fluorescent-lighted aisles of a Target store in Ventura, families searched high and low for that perfect holiday centerpiece.

The Christmas tree.

They scoured for unsightly gaps in branches. They scrunched their faces up at the sky, calculating whether the star would fit between the treetop and the ceiling. And they wondered, sometimes aloud: Does that shade of green even occur in nature?

By Dec. 25, more than 36 million American households will focus their holiday festivities around a real Christmas tree, said Rick Dungey, spokesman for the St. Louis-based National Christmas Tree Assn. One million more trees will be purchased nationwide than were sold in 1999.

According to the group’s annual survey, about 62% of those will be purchased at retail outlets such as Stu Miller’s Christmas Tree Lot in Thousand Oaks.

There, the Baratte brothers of Camarillo eagerly told of their tree-hunting adventures.

“It was a really tough decision,” Chase, 11, said.

“Ours was so good, we had to guard it,” piped up Cole, 7.

“We collect the stumps from every tree we get,” said Collin, 9, showing off this year’s prize piece.

Manny and Trichia Asadurian drove their children, Manny Jr., 8, and Marisa, 5, to three lots looking for the right tree.

After sizing up dozens of candidates, the family found one--a towering 11-foot Douglas fir.

“I still think it’s too big,” a rueful Marisa said.

Meanwhile, at the Christmas Tree Farm in Santa Paula, about 150 tree hunters from all over Southern California hopped aboard a Fillmore & Western train Saturday morning with the goal of sawing down their very own fresh Monterey pine.

Among them were the Duncan family of La Habra, who had settled on one of the trees early in the day.

“I found it for my mom,” 4-year-old Jennifer said proudly.

“It’s more fun cutting your own,” her sister, Alyssa, 8, chimed in. “It seems more Christmasy.”

The family’s tradition is to decorate the tree the night they get it, while eating plenty of pizza and listening to Christmas music on the stereo.

But this is the first time they cut their own tree rather than picking up one at the local Home Depot.

“We’re having an old-fashioned Christmas,” mother Kathy Duncan said.

Suzanne and Don Van Doren of Newbury Park brought their 6-month-old son, Ryan, to take part in what has become a family tradition.

“We cut down our own trees growing up, and it’s just part of Christmas to me,” Don Van Doren said. “It symbolizes the beginning of the season. You pick up the tree and put up the lights, and that starts the whole thing off.”

While some darted in and out of stands of trees, desperately looking for the perfect specimen, the Van Dorens said they always choose one with a few flaws.

“It’s an imperfect world,” Don Van Doren said.

On the other side of the farm, Norma and Alan Lyons of Ventura were becoming slightly exasperated: Every tree they tried to pick was marked with a tag indicating it was already spoken for.

Norma, who grew up in Santa Paula, said her parents used to bring her to the farm to cut a tree.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia for me,” she said. “It’s a really neat thing.”

Before too long, however, they settled on a medium-size Monterey pine with full, fluffy branches.

Norma looked through the lens of her hand-held video camera as Garrett, 6, and Jordan, 2, helped their dad slowly but surely push the saw through the tree trunk.

“Timber!” Garrett shouted gleefully as the pine plopped to the ground.

Mario Carbona’s Christmas-tree hunt was less rustic. The Ventura resident pushed a shopping cart around a display of artificial trees at Target, running the plastic pine needles through his fingers as he struggled to decide which model was most lifelike.

“Some of them look too perfect,” he said. “That one is just way too green.”

Carbona decided to go artificial this year because he said he was tired of cleaning up the mess every Dec. 26. The real tree dries out so quickly that pine needles are soon lodged in the carpet throughout the house, he said. Carbona was looking forward to a Christmas with far fewer hassles, thanks to his artificial tree.

“The only drawback,” he said, “is they don’t smell like a tree.”

That was the same problem Phyllis Fox of Ojai had with her decision to buy a fake Christmas tree this year. She said her 9-year-old son, Douglas, begged her to find a pine-scented air freshener so the house could be filled with the holiday aroma the tree usually brings.

“In 35 years I’ve never had a fake tree and it’s really hard for me,” Fox said, saying fire concerns are what prompted the switch.

She’s doing all she can to make the tree seem real, including picking up real tree clippings to scatter on tabletops and buying fake snow to “dull-down” the artificial tree’s unnaturally bright-green hue.

“We’ll try it this year,” Fox said. “If worse comes to worst, we’ll get a couple of years of use out of it and then go back to cutting down our own.”

FYI

Tips in caring for a real Christmas tree:

* Keep the tree in a cool, shady place such as the garage or porch until ready to bring indoors and decorate.

* Saw a thin disk (1/4 inch) off the trunk prior to placing the tree in a stand holding water.

* Cut perpendicular to the axis of the stem, not at angles or a V-shaped cut.

* Place the tree in the stand within four to six hours after making a cut to the trunk.

* Make sure the stand holds enough water for the size of the tree. A good rule-of-thumb is 1 quart capacity for every inch in diameter of the trunk.

* Check water levels often in the first few days. A tree will absorb the most water soon after it is cut and placed in water.

* Display the tree away from heat sources (fireplaces, television sets and computers) and sources of outside air. Always check electrical devices (lights and other decorations) before placing them on the tree.

* Unless required by local law, avoid spraying preservatives or fire retardants on the foliage of the tree. Some of these products can increase the rate of moisture loss from a tree and can change its appearance. The most fire-retardant tree is one that is properly watered and cared for.

Source: National Christmas Tree Assn.