SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Mike Salk learns Christmas lesson of Griswold proportions
Nov 30, 2015, 6:05 PM | Updated: Dec 1, 2015, 6:04 am
710 ESPN Seattle's Mike Salk learned how to properly buy a Christmas tree the hard way. It's a moral many should heed as the holiday season continues.
It’s a moral story that remains relevant each year as the holidays get underway. That moral: Plan ahead, and bring measuring tape.
It’s something 710 ESPN Seattle’s Mike Salk learned the hard way after visiting a tree stand in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood.
Salk visited a tree-selling site at Green Lake Elementary this year to pick out his Christmas tree. It is here that Salk made a classic Christmas mistake of Clark Griswold proportions.
“[My wife] was sort of wandering around with the kids and I saw this tree and said, ‘Hey, this one is great!’ and she was like, ‘Yeah, that one is awesome!'” Salk told KIRO Radio’s Don O’Neill.
“I got a tree that is way too big. It was in the 10-11′ category and it was $80,” he said.
The immense tree looked great at the lot, but perceptions changed once at home.
“The way our house works is that when you walk in it’s right into the living room … so it’s got really high ceilings right there,” Salk said. “But the problem is girth.”
Salk found that majestic trees standing tall and proud, also extend their branches with equal conviction.
Salk’s wife went back and inquired at Green Lake Elementary’s tree sale and found — through the graciousness of the volunteer dad that was working there — that they could switch out the tree if they returned it that same night.
That posed two problems. One: Salk didn’t want to head out yet again that night. And two: Salk already had the workers at the school switch out a tree — he originally chose a much smaller one before opting for the much larger option. “We get the huge tree home, and we get it inside through some sort of Christmas miracle. I’m like, ‘Heather, it’s enormous. We’ve entered the tree’s space,'” Salk said.
“I panicked and said we aren’t bringing it back tonight. So the next morning I bought huge lopper-clippers,” he said. “I cut off all the lower branches and now it fits OK … well, it’s still too large. We had to go buy 300 more lights than we had last year.”
