The Night Tree

The first Christmas of COVID, we started a new holiday tradition here at Little Farm. Our daughter, Heather, suggested that we do a Night Tree. Her idea was based on the children’s book of the same name by Eve Bunting. It is a lovely story, and the illustrations are beautiful. I hope you will find a copy and read it this holiday season, sharing it with your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc. The story is about a family that decorates a tree in the woods for the birds and animals. They call it their Night Tree.

Our first attempt at a Night Tree included stringing cranberry and popcorn chains and making peanut butter pinecones. For those unfamiliar with this last wildlife delicacy, it involves covering a pinecone with creamy peanut butter, rolling it in birdseed, and then attaching a piece of string or yarn in order to hang it.

That first year we decorated a few lower branches of a large blue spruce tree at the edge of our field. It was sleeting and bitterly cold that year as I remember. We bundled up and hung our wildlife offerings quickly. We tried lighting small candles to hold in the darkness though it was hard to keep them lit in the wind. We wrapped up our new tradition by singing an equally quick rendition of Silent Night, Holy Night.

Upon close inspection over the next few days, we found that the peanut butter pinecones were well-received. However, the popcorn and cranberries were barely touched until I removed them in the spring.

In subsequent years, we have decorated a deciduous tree closer to the house and have hung only the favored pinecones. Stringing the popcorn and cranberries was way too much work for such a lukewarm response!

We still gather about the tree when it gets dark on an evening close to Christmas when our whole family is here in Maine. We still decorate it - for the birds mostly – maybe an occasional squirrel. We still try to light candles but are not often successful in keeping them lit, and we still sing a verse of Silent Night.

The best part of the Night Tree, however, occurs the following morning. The tree is generally covered with birds – mostly juncos and chickadees – often 40 or 50 strong. It is such an amazing sight to see so many birds fluttering and flying around, noshing on peanut butter and bird seed!

Such a treat for them on a cold December morning! Such an offering we have made to the

natural world around us! Such a wonderful tradition that I hope we can maintain in the years to come – especially as our three granddaughters get a bit older and can anticipate not only their own Christmas morning but a Christmas for the birds and animals as well.