Best 50 Bucks I Ever Spent

So there I was, standing in front of the Christmas tree stand display at Stew Leonards.

"Should we really spend 50 bucks on a tree stand?" I asked the wife.

Flashback to last year: me, lying on the floor with pine needles in my eyes, tightening the bolts on our crappy old tree stand with a pair of pliers, as the wife holds the tree up. I stand up, she lets go, and tree falls over. Utter great obscenities. Threaten to convert to Judaism, Zoroastrianism, or any ism without a tree-in-the-house tradition. Repeat 6 or 7 times.

Dissolve back to Stews, Saturday night. We look at this Krinner tree stand with great hope. Fancy. New. It has a foot pedal and a cunning array of thick wire and clamps that are tightened and released by said pedal. The box says its easy. It looks easy. We buy it.

Once we hauled the tree into the house, it took maybe 15 seconds to set it up. We were so surprised, we did it twice, just to be sure. Feels like its countersunk into a foot of concrete.

Sure, maybe its a small thing, but not worrying that your tree will get knocked over by the kids or just fall over on its own is worth the 50 bucks.