"Oh Blazin' Tree, Oh Blazin' Tree"

I think only in Switzerland is getting rid of your Christmas tree just as fun as picking it out. Our village held a tree burning on Wednesday night so Daniel and I loaded up the tree and drove on down. We had been preparing for this for weeks - pretty much from the day we bought the tree. We were careful to not trim the bottom of the tree so it was impossible for it to suck up water, consequently, by January 7th this sucker was ready to burn! It was crispy to the touch and dropping needles if you breathed on it!
We dropped it on the pile of trees the evening of the burning and we overheard a few murmured "Oh -la, la - il est grand" - Oh my, that one's big - coming from the crowd. And it was! I think it was one of the biggest there!
As part of the festivities the "Pompiers"- firemen, served hot wine and sausages on bread. Daniel commented that it felt like a normal high school homecoming night. So we stood around in freezing temperatures eating brats and drinking hot wine until the moment of truth arrived - it was time for our tree.
A calm settled over the crowd. The fireman dragging ours on the pile looked at his colleague and said "Protecte -moi" and with a massive heave our tree fell onto the fire.
We were not disappointed! The flames shot up into the sky and the crowd simultaneously started backing away. The row of third grade boys starting whooping and giving high fives shouting to each other "C'est trop cool!" - that's so cool! And it was! It made all the weeks of preparation totally worth it. One might almost call forgetting to cut the bottom off the tree the true Christmas Miracle.