There were these tree fellers...

Oh Christmas tree...

It’s funny how switching location can change your perspective. 

Last week during a short return visit to London, we were happy to join in with the usual grumbling about “Christmas” being too early in the shops, with Christmas displays, music, decorations and advertising music even preceding the Guy Fawkes celebrations in some cases.

This week, back in Lapland, we’re spending the morning acquiring our Christmas tree.  In mid-November!

Really, it’s all down to logistics.

  

While our little corner of Lapland already looks like a winter wonder-land with snow everywhere and trees heavy with frost, it’s still “early-winter” which means that the deep snow has yet to arrive.  

It’s a lot of fun heading off into the forest in snow shoes to find a tree in mid-December, but it’s never much lighter than twilight and it’s really quite hard to move felled trees around in deep snow.

Anyway, since the trees in the far north don’t take much water on-board at this time of year, it’s not a problem to bring one home and leave it outside, effectively  in “cold-storage” until a more socially-acceptable time to take it indoors decorate it and give it pride of place in the cabin.

 

Anyway, after a coffee and chat to discuss tactics, we headed off into the countryside with two of our Finnish friends, with a car and trailer, and were soon marching off into the forest.   

In the north of Finland, it's possible to select and retrieve your own tree, and pay for it with an automated call to 

Metsähallitus the Finnish forestry people.

Though it can be tricky making the call in finger-chilling -20C! 

The principle is that, in the government-owned forestry areas, outside the National Parks, taking these small trees from near the roadsides provides an essential "Thinning" service, and so is encouraged. 

Not surprisingly, in a Finnish forest, there are a lot (a heck of a lot) of trees to choose from, so then started a process of selection, which, in our case generally meant... lots of discussion, almost choosing a specific tree, then deciding that the next one was a better colour, or shape or height.  

Finally, the ideal candidate was found and preparations were made. 

Preparations, in this case, being to stand back and take photos of the man with the saw. 

Fir trees are quite easy to cut down (says me who wasn't actually doing any sawing) and in no time, once the perfect height at which to cut had been decided, the sawing was underway. 

In Finnish forests, especially in winter, silence is a major attraction, so we managed to resist the natural desire to shout "Timber" as we gradually lowered the tree to the ground, and prepared to carry it back to the trailer. 

In celebration of the successful operation, and to warm frozen extremities after carrying the tree back to the car, we were tempted on to the forest trail that heads for Äkässaivo around a 3km loop. 

Äkässaivo is a deep forest lake that has no obvious means of filling and was a sacred place for ancient Sami people. 

After hearing some fascinating stories of the ancient peoples that lived, worshipped at the ancient lake, and sharing some hot tea and delicious home-made sandwiches, provided by our tree-felling friends, we took advantage of the frozen lake to make some celebratory snow-angels.

Job done for the day, time to head back to the car and take the tree back to its new temporary home in the back garden, ready for the decoration stages to happen a little nearer to Christmas.  

Another day, another new experience in Lapland.  

If you are visiting Finnish Lapland over or around the festive season, it's fun and quite satisfying "hunting and gathering" your own tree, before preparing it for the Christmas celebration.