THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 14, 1994 TAG: 9412130091
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
For all of Doris Slough's life, old-fashioned cedar trees have been a part of her Christmas decorations.
As a youngster growing up in Lexington, Slough and her brother would tramp through the woods to find a beautiful, big cedar to cut down and carry home for the holidays. Later she and husband Henry and their children would go back to Lexington where her father owns timber and continue the family tradition.
Now although the Sloughs' children are grown, the couple still drives up to Lexington in December, except in an unusually busy year. And they still tramp through the woods to find that perfect cedar Christmas tree for the living room of their Southern Points home.
``When I was young, I was always surprised to see that other people didn't have cedar trees,'' Slough said. ``They were always so fresh and the aroma was so spicy.''
The cedar's distinctive fragrance instantly evokes nostalgia in most folks. It brings back memories, or maybe ideals of memories, of holidays past. Recollections of grandma's house, snow, crackling fires, Santa and Christmas stockings all surface when the smell of a cedar hits your senses.
Ralph Womeldorf, who also grew up in Lexington, still remembers the ``woodsy aroma which was wafted through our home'' by the Christmas cedars the family had when he was young. Womeldorf would go to his grandfather's woods to cut down the tree and as recently as seven or eight years ago, his daughter was still driving to Lexington to cut a fresh cedar.
Womeldorf doesn't have a cedar Christmas tree inside the house these days. However, he keeps the tradition alive by stringing lights on one that grows naturally in his Lake View Shores yard.
Cedar trees, or Virginia cedar or red cedar as they are called, are native to the state and were the only Christmas tree to be had in this area earlier in the century. That was before blue spruce, Scotch pine and other Northern trees were shipped in by seasonal Christmas tree dealers.
What's more, the cedar tree is one of the only trees naturally shaped like a Christmas tree. Christmas tree farmer Winky Henley said cedars require a lot less pruning than other trees like white pine.
``The cedar has the natural shape whereas the others don't,'' Henley said. ``It's always got that shape. If it wants to grow too fast, you just take a little out of the top to slow it down. Other Christmas trees have been pruned heavily because they get gawky.''
When you drive down a country road, cedars that grow along fence rows are instantly recognized by their graceful triangular forms. Folks who drive regularly on Interstate 64 outside Hampton probably have noticed in the median strip the lone cedar that's decorated year round. An elf, who knows no season, sees to it that the tree is always ornamented whether it's Christmas, Valentine's, 4th of July, Halloween or other occasion.
It's as though the pretty little tree were begging to be decorated. But although cedars seem to cry out from afar for ornaments, decorating them is not so easy, Henley said. He always warns a prospective buyer that it's hard to hang ornaments on a cedar because of its close-knit feathery branches.
``They've got to know what they're getting,'' he said. ``They look pretty in the field, but they're really thick so it's hard to decorate them.''
Cedars were the only trees Henley ever had as a youngster and they were all cut from the woods around his Princess Anne County home. Then they were decorated with the old-fashioned glass ornaments, big colored lights and icicles.
And, he said, there are folks who come down to the farm still determined to get a cedar and nothing else, folks like Slough and Womeldorf, who enjoy keeping an old, old tradition alive.
P.S. THE HISTORIC CAPE HENRY LIGHTHOUSE at Fort Story will begin its seasonal illumination at 5 p.m. today. The lighthouse will be lit for the holidays through New Year's Day. Enter Fort Story through the gate at the north end of Atlantic Avenue. Be prepared to show a driver's license.
CHILDREN CAN HEAR ABOUT VICTORIAN CHRISTMAS customs in Louisa May Alcott's ``Little Women'' at the Hunter House Victorian Museum's monthly book club at 1 p.m. Saturday. After the reading, they can help decorate the Hunter House tree. The program is $5. Call 664-6283 for reservations. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know about
Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555. Enter
category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet address:
mbarrow(AT)infi.net.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
Doris and Henry Slough attempt each year to drive up to Lexington in
December, and tramp through the woods to find that perfect cedar
Christmas tree for the living room of their Southern Points home.
by CNB