The Slice: Never thought it was a bad little tree

Intermarriage has changed the holidays.

You see it at Thanksgiving.

What once was a sure-fire point of contention has fizzled.

You know those once satisfying arguments about real vs. artificial Christmas trees?

Done. Over. Finished.

Nobody cares anymore.

Why? Intermarriage.

For decades now, people who grew up in households with a real-tree tradition have been getting hitched to people who grew up in artificial-tree homes.

In many cases, the result has been compromise and a softening of positions once held with rigid fervor.

Oh, sure. You could still try to start a lively debate about it at Thanksgiving. Chances are though, you will be greeted with a shrug.

As any card-carrying baby boomer could tell you, it wasn’t always this way. Once, artificial trees were regarded in certain quarters as sacrilege. They were viewed as a Technicolor affront to decent society.

This served only to harden the resolve of early adopters. They regarded their shiny metallic tannenbaums as a modern improvement on tinsel-bearing dead trees that wound up out by the curb with the garbage barrel.

The anti-aluminum forces were bolstered by the appearance of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in 1965. That show seemed to take the side of real trees.

But before long there were artificial replicas of the sad little tree from that classic holiday “Peanuts” special.

This back-and-forth remained an annual ritual. Fake trees evolved toward a more natural appearance. Real trees continued to smell good and shed needles.

You were either a “real tree” family or a “fake tree” family.

But over the years mixed marriages blurred the dividing line.

That and issue fatigue. People got tired of fighting about it.

The two opposing camps more or less withdrew from the battle and instead concentrated their seasonal urge to argue on the fruitcake debate or whatever.

So now, at least on the yule tree front, an air of peace pervades the land. All is calm. All is bright.

Which is fine. But here’s the truth.

People used to enjoy arguing about Christmas trees. There was an element of recreational wrangling to it.

I suspect at least a few of us miss that.

This date in Slice history (1992): Today’s Slice question: With America hurtling toward an increasingly multicultural future, what are the implications of growing up in a whiter-than-average region for the Inland Northwest’s children?

Today’s Slice question: What happened on the computer screen when you accidentally dropped something heavy on your keyboard?

Write The Slice at P. O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210; call (509) 459-5470; email pault@spokesman.com. It’s a marvelous night for a super moon dance.