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On the tree trail For Barbara Matteau, the adventure is not selecting the tree but bringing it home to her tiny apartment in Harvard Square. She buys her tree at a lot near Porter Square. Too frugal to take a cab and not foolhardy enough to take the T, she walks it home. "It makes the people I pass by smile and be of good cheer to see me, perambulating down Mass. Ave., with tree in tow." Tree transport has become a tradition for Karen F. Mahoney of Brookline, too. "We have the most practical of cars to have in New England in the wintertime - a two-seater convertible," Mahoney writes. "So, at Christmas time, we can be seen driving around the streets of Brookline with the top down (and freezing our butts off) while the tree sits comfortably in the passenger seat." Carol, Derett and Aiden Jepson of Billerica will never forget their first Christmas in Massachusetts - and their tale contains a lesson for us all. Lured by the sign "Cut your own Christmas Tree," they "decided to take the owner of the house across the street up on the offer." After they chopped down a fir and tied it to their car, the Jepsons write, "we questioned our host why his sign didn't bring in more business. He smiled and admitted that he had actually wondered what had brought us to his property in the first place. It turns out, the sign belonged to the farm one mile up the road, and we had just cut a tree from this gentleman's private property!"

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