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Navigation Primary Navigation Home Singapore Asia Pacific World Business Entertainment Sports Technology Top Stories Most Popular Secondary Navigation Asia Pacific World Search Search: Field of evergreens: Americans go back to roots of Christmas AFP - Friday, December 19 GERMANTOWN, Maryland (AFP) - - Christmas, in the minds of many Americans, means a trip to the mall to load up with gifts, and a tree bought in a car park or taken out of a box and assembled before it is decorated with store-bought ornaments. But the idea of a do-it-yourself Christmas is gaining a following as more and more Americans cut down their own tree and craft the decorations they will hang on it. At a farm in Germantown, a once rural part of Maryland that is now a residential suburb of Washington, scores of families and groups of friends were roaming through fields in the crisp December air, seeking out the perfect Christmas tree among tens of thousands of firs and pines. "We've done this for three years in a row," said Jim Anderson, who was tree-hunting with his wife and two children and family friend Sarah Scott and her kids. The Butler family, who own the farm, has been offering cut-your-own Christmas trees since the 1950s . Ten years ago, the Butlers noticed demand was rising. So they planted more trees, many of which are now at a size where they can be cut down. Cutting your own Christmas tree is "a family entertainment kind of thing" and a chance for city dwellers to go back to the land, said Todd Butler. "A lot of people want their kids to see where stuff like Christmas trees comes from. They don't come from the back room of a supermarket; they grow in the ground," he said. While Anderson and Scott were seasoned tree-fellers, others were venturing out into the field for the first time. "How does the cut-your-own Christmas tree thing work? Will there be someone there to cut it down for us?" Lauren Wegmann asked inside the farm shop, where she and four of her housemates were lining up to have a Christmas wreath custom-made for them. "Actually, that's where you come in. We have saws," replied Angela Butler. Susan Neely and her children, Eve and Ben Jones, were in their third year of cutting their own Christmas tree and wreath-making, but Neely admitted that it hasn't always been easy to get into the Christmas spirit at the farm. "Last year, I did it all myself and there was a dark moment when I was lying on my back in the cold dirt, the sun was going down and my 80-year-old mother kept shouting, 'You're going to cut your arm off.'" Cutting your own Christmas tree works out at around the same price for a similar size pre-cut tree -- a four-foot fir cost 51 dollars -- but the sense of satisfaction is exponentially greater when you have personally sawed through the trunk of your evergreen, pushed it to the ground and then secured it to the car roof to take home. "We'll appreciate our Christmas tree a lot more," Wegmann said after struggling for at least 20 minutes with her housemates to cut down a thick fir. "I thought we could come to the field and pick out the one we wanted and then there would be a man to cut it down for us," said Wegmann, who works in Washington but originally hails from New Orleans, vowing that this was her first and last tree-cutting experience. "Now that we know what it's like, we'll definitely be just buying one that's already cut down -- unless we have a man or a chainsaw," she said. In the urban sprawl that is New York, tree-cutting possibilities are few but residents can get the home-made Christmas spirit by blowing their own glass ornaments. The experience comes at a price, though, which would make dropping one of the creations far more painful than having butter-fingers with a glass ornament that came out of a pack in a shop. A lesson in glass-ornament blowing at Urban Glass in Manhattan costs 225 dollars, but the novice glass blowers were unfazed by the price tag. "There is something about making your own, using your own creative thought processes to come up with a hand-crafted, molten glass form," said Pat Clemente, who was blowing ornaments with his wife, Brenda. "It holds something special," said Eileen Manning. "You see something you made, and you are proud of it," she said. Americans spent 9.3 billion dollars on Christmas decor last year, according to consumer research firm Unity Marketing. This year, as the United States weathers its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Americans are in no mood to spend money, according to the Gallup polling organization. The estimated budget for Christmas gifts -- Americans' single biggest expenditure item during the holidays -- has fallen 200 dollars since last year to 639 dollars, the lowest level since 1994, Gallup said. Email Story IM Story Printable View Blog This Recommend this article Average (0 votes) Sign in to recommend this article » Most Recommended Stories » Related Articles: Entertainment & Lifestyle Redford, Crowe join stars against actors strikeAFP - 33 minutes ago 'Doubt' emerges as actors awards front-runnerAFP - 1 hour 20 minutes ago McCready is stable after reported suicide attemptAP - 1 hour 28 minutes ago Do tell: `Edgar Sawtelle' prequel in the worksAP - 1 hour 36 minutes ago Tom Cruise's son makes debut in Will Smith movieAP - 2 hours 4 minutes ago Enlarge Photo Christmas, in the minds of many Americans, means a trip to the mall to load up with gifts, and a tree bought in a car park or taken out of a box and assembled before it is decorated with store-bought ornaments. 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