Deceptive tree heights

We went Christmas shopping today. We've been going to the same lot for years, and in what has become a family tradition, we always look for the biggest tree with a good shape. We like big trees, and the room where we put the tree has an angled ceiling that is quite tall on one side. This trip was particularly significant because it was likely to be the last time we got to pick a tree with Sarah there (though next year we may videoconference her so she can help choose--what geeks, eh?).

Before we made it to the edge of the lot, a monster beckoned us. Even leaning against a fence railing, it towered over the others. It was wide enough that it took three of us standing side by side, as you can see in this picture, to match its width.

In this picture, though, the tree doesn't look that tall. We honestly thought we could fit it in our room.

If you're wondering, by the way, why I don't pose for more pictures, this shot could help you understand. I look like an axe murderer who just lost his axe. I do not relax well or smile well for photos.

Anyway, to continue our tale, we then proceeded to debate the merits of purchasing this tree. Several things were going against it. It weighed hundreds of pounds and would not fit through our front door. It also would not fit in our rather enormous tree stand, because as you can see in this photo, the base of its trunk was roughly the size of an elephant's foot. (Yes, we have a yard-wide, forty-pound, reinforced steel industrial Christmas tree stand. I told you we like big trees.)

After much discussion, we all had to admit that we simply could not get this tree into our house. So, we abandoned it and went for the second largest tree on the lot, one that looked tiny by comparison. We like our new tree, but we left the lot convinced we had purchased a tiny little wisp of a Christmas tree and feeling like wimps who had boarded the Christmas tree failboat.

Then we set it up in our room.

It's the biggest tree we've had in a few years. As this picture shows, using roughly five-and-a-half-feet-tall (in shoes) Allyn for comparison, and with Holden deciding at the last moment to provide some width measurement help, this is a very big tree. I took this shot right after we set it up, so the tree hasn't fully spread yet. It will definitely be a nice, large tree.

I now have to believe that had one of our schemes worked, had we been able to hire a team of men with a huge truck to bring the other tree into our house, the thing would have been too tall to fit in our usual tree spot and way too heavy for our stand to support it. We could have fixed the latter, of course, by buying an even more enormous and expensive stand--and we were up for doing that--but short of removing our kitchen island and filling the entire kitchen with a tree, we would have been out of luck.

So, we were wise to go with the small tree that actually proved to be rather large.