Have you bought your tree already?

Jenny Kane / The Patriot-News via AP
In this photo taken Nov. 23, 2010, Anthony Calabrese, right, and his uncle, Demenico Calabrese, look at trees during one of the nation's largest Christmas tree auctions in Mifflinburg, Pa., about 60 miles north of Harrisburg. This farming community invented a brand of Thanksgiving-week shopping frenzy others would love to emulate. Call it Black Tuesday. Tuesday, a mob of shoppers lined up not outside a department store, but behind an auctioneer. The mob followed him all day through fields piled high with Christmas trees. Some bought by the dozen, some bought by the truckload.


I will put up my Holiday Plate and Star, no more trees, real, plastic or otherwise; so much easier.