Every Fall, the women in my family get together to celebrate ‘Christmas in October’. We spend the day poking around the Christmas wares the local boutiques have displayed, eating decadently, and getting ourselves in the Christmas spirit. This has become a yearly tradition and something we all look forward to as the holiday season approaches.

Sometime near the beginning of these outings my sister and I stumbled upon what is quite possibly, one of the ugliest Christmas decorations we have ever laid eyes on.

Standing at approximately 10 inches high was, what appeared to be a Christmas tree plastered in dried snot, sequins, and dryer lint. Confused, I picked it up and presented it to my sister. We stared in silence for a solid minute and then burst into laughter, which lead to tears, which lead to my sister fearing she may need a change on pants.

And that my friends, was how our Ugly Tree Forest was born.

Every year while celebrating ‘Christmas in October’ we search for a new tree to add to the collection. And, on the years we haven’t been able to spend the holidays together, we’ve had competitions over who can find the ugliest tree to gift to one another.

Over the years many have heard the story of this forest. It has become a group effort with friends and family adding to our collection. We even have a shop in our home town whose owner now considers us while purchasing his Christmas stock, orders us the ugliest trees he can get his hands on and then hides them in his store for us to find when we come shopping.

It really has turned into quite the production.