Winter in SA (how much, transfer, buy)

[tj7run]

I was looking at some of the photos posted and noticed that at Christmas the sun was shining. Being from Oregon and transfering, do you purchase Christmas trees, or use fake trees? It definitely will get some getting used to. How cold does it get?

Although after this past weekend, and seeing snow, hail, sleet, rain and sun; I think the sunshine will be a welcome change.

[AnthonySA]

Winter in South Texas does not compare at all to what you would expect in Oregon. I've lived here for the past 5 years and in a nutshell, we are in the 70's and 60's in the daytime with lows in the 40's and sometimes 30's.

There are indeed cold polar airmasses that do make it down here from time to time, which generally last for a couple of days dropping our lows in the 20s and highs in the 40's-50's (depending on how much moisture we have around, the less our temperatures will rebound).

I know that we do have both real and fake christmas tree's here that sell in November and December but I cannot compare the prices between here and Oregon.. I brought my old fake tree that I use every year.

[Bo]

There are businesses that sell real trees here. I've heard they are more expensive than up north because I've never shopped for one. I prefer an artificial tree myself, since the real ones contain too many things I am allergic to.

As for how cold it gets, there are less than 10 days in the average winter here where the overnight low drops below freezing. (Last winter was warmer than usual. I think it happened twice.) When a freeze is predicted, the news is always full of dire warnings about how we need to protect our pets, plants and pipes! In 5 years of living here, I don't remember a day where the high for the day was lower than 35.

[tj7run]

The part of Oregon I have always lived in doesn't get extremely cold, but this has been a cold winter. We have always went to the mountains to get our Christmas tree; we make it a fun day by building a fire, roasting hot dogs, drinking a little (beer, and hot chocolate), and finally cutting the tree. So the cost of the tree is $5, and the gas it takes to get there.

I guess every place has something to offer.

[Chaka]

You can still build the fire, roast the hot dogs and drink the beer

There are places to get real trees, but I'm not sure about places where you can cut them down. We get a real tree, but aim for small. I always feel a bit guilty about it though...we tried to replant a small one one year and it didn't work.

A few years ago we had snow on Christmas! On New Years day it was 90F with 90% humidity.

[johnrex62]

Originally Posted by tj7run

The part of Oregon I have always lived in doesn't get extremely cold, but this has been a cold winter. We have always went to the mountains to get our Christmas tree; we make it a fun day by building a fire, roasting hot dogs, drinking a little (beer, and hot chocolate), and finally cutting the tree. So the cost of the tree is $5, and the gas it takes to get there.

I guess every place has something to offer.

Well, the cost of the tree will be MUCH more. I have not bought one in over 10 years, but back then the cheapest 6 foot tree that had more that 4 limbs on it was $35. They had a lot of "nice" ones between $35 and $85 and then some really pricy trees over $120 and still going. I could not justify more than $65 and considered that extortion. My wife doesn't actually pay for the tree so she still can't comprehend why I think the artificial tree is perfectly adequate even after 10 years.

The experience of cutting your own tree is harder to find around here, but there are some tree farms north of town. I can't direct you to any specifically, but I do recall seeing signs from time to time that advertise picking your tree. No public evergreen forests for 'free' trees, but if you like spruce and make a friend of someone in the hill country, that could be a possibility.

[LindaGrace]

Don't let them lie to you, OP. For Christmas, we just decorate our cacti with dried scorpions and rattlesnakes, and use a horseshoe for a topper.

SERIOUSLY. You can buy a tree or use a fake one, whatever. Texas is weird, but it isn't THAT much different from anyplace else in the USA.