Christmas Trees (Poem by Robert Lee Frost)

Christmas Trees

(A Christmas Circular Letter)

By Robert Lee Frost

The city had withdrawn into itself

And left at last the country to the country;

When between whirls of snow not come to lie

And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove

A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,

Yet did in country fashion in that there

He sat and waited till he drew us out

A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.

He proved to be the city come again

To look for something it had left behind

And could not do without and keep its Christmas.

He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;

My woods – the young fir balsams like a place

Where houses all are churches and have spires.

I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas Trees.

I doubt if I was tempted for a moment

To sell them off their feet to go in cars

And leave the slope behind the house all bare,

Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.

I’d hate to have them know it if I was.

Yet more I’d hate to hold my trees except

As others hold theirs or refuse for them,

Beyond the time of profitable growth,

The trial by market everything must come to.

I dallied so much with the thought of selling.

Then whether from mistaken courtesy

And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether

From hope of hearing good of what was mine,

I said, “There aren’t enough to be worth while.”

“I could soon tell how many they would cut,

You let me look them over.”

“You could look.

But don’t expect I’m going to let you have them.”

Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close

That lop each other of boughs, but not a few

Quite solitary and having equal boughs

All round and round. The latter he nodded “Yes” to,

Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,

With a buyer’s moderation, “That would do.”

I thought so too, but wasn’t there to say so.

We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,

And came down on the north.

He said, “A thousand.”

“A thousand Christmas trees! – at what apiece?”

He felt some need of softening that to me:

“A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars.”

Then I was certain I had never meant

To let him have them. Never show surprise!

But thirty dollars seemed so small beside

The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents

(For that was all they figured out apiece),

Three cents so small beside the dollar friends

I should be writing to within the hour

Would pay in cities for good trees like those,

Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools

Could hang enough on to pick off enough.

A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had!

Worth three cents more to give away than sell,

As may be shown by a simple calculation.

Too bad I couldn’t lay one in a letter.

I can’t help wishing I could send you one,

In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.

Poem Analysis:

Robert Frost’s Christmas Trees is a contemplative narrative poem that explores the tension between nature and commerce, tradition and modernity, and personal value versus market value. Written in Frost’s signature conversational style, the poem gently critiques the commodification of natural beauty through a modest encounter: a city man arrives at a rural home to buy Christmas trees. What unfolds is a quiet meditation on the worth of trees—not just in dollars, but in spirit.

Structure and Style

The poem is a narrative told in blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter), a form Frost often favored for its flexibility and closeness to natural speech. The storytelling voice is direct and personal, with an informal tone that masks deep philosophical inquiry. Frost’s use of enjambment and conversational phrasing gives the poem an almost prose-like quality, as if the speaker is thinking out loud rather than performing.

Despite its simplicity, the poem is rich with subtle metaphor and imagery, drawing contrasts between city and country, money and meaning, utility and beauty.

Plot Overview

A man from the city drives into a rural yard to ask the speaker if he can buy his fir trees to sell as Christmas trees. The speaker initially hesitates, unsure whether he even wants to consider selling them. After a moment of polite indecision, he lets the stranger look over the trees, who offers thirty dollars for a thousand of them—just three cents each.

The speaker is struck by how undervalued the trees seem in this context and reflects on their greater personal and symbolic value. Ultimately, he refuses the offer, not with hostility but with reflective pride, ending the poem by imagining sending a tree as a gift instead.

Themes

1. Nature vs. Commerce

One of the central tensions in the poem is the commercialization of nature. The city man sees the trees as inventory—products to be sold—while the speaker views them as part of his landscape, his life, and perhaps even his spiritual world:

My woods – the young fir balsams like a place

Where houses all are churches and have spires.

This metaphor elevates the trees to something sacred. Their value isn’t economic but aesthetic and spiritual. The speaker recoils at the thought of “stripping” the land for a paltry sum. His hesitation reflects the broader unease many feel when natural beauty is reduced to monetary value.

2. Rural Integrity and Identity

Frost presents the speaker as a man deeply connected to the land—not in a sentimental or nostalgic way, but with quiet dignity. While the offer of thirty dollars is tempting in practical terms, he recognizes the long-term cost to his environment and his self-respect:

Then I was certain I had never meant

To let him have them. Never show surprise!

This line underscores his pride—not arrogance, but a kind of rural integrity. He may live a simpler life than the city man, but he’s not naive or desperate. Frost’s speaker is not anti-commercial, but he values the trees more as part of a living landscape than as seasonal decor.

3. The Value of the Unseen

The speaker is surprised to learn he owns "a thousand Christmas trees"—he hadn’t even counted them. To the businessman, their worth is clear and limited: three cents apiece. But to the speaker, their true value lies elsewhere. This discrepancy highlights a recurring Frostian idea: the difference between surface and depth, between what is seen and what is felt.

A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had!

Worth three cents more to give away than sell…

Giving becomes more meaningful than selling. This theme turns the poem into a kind of Christmas reflection—not just on trees, but on generosity, and how value is defined not by price but by purpose.

Tone and Mood

The poem begins in a quietly reflective mood, moves into curiosity, then becomes tinged with gentle irony when the speaker learns how little the trees are “worth.” Yet rather than bitterness, the ending offers warmth and generosity:

I can’t help wishing I could send you one,

In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.

This closing line breaks the narrative form slightly, as if the speaker is now addressing the reader or a distant friend. It shifts the poem from commentary to connection, embodying the spirit of Christmas more authentically than any commercial exchange could.

Symbolism

• Christmas Trees: Symbolize more than holiday decoration—they represent tradition, beauty, and spiritual warmth. In their natural setting, they evoke reverence (“churches and have spires”); removed, they become commodities.
• The City Stranger: Represents modern consumerism and urban detachment from nature. He’s not villainous, just part of a system that undervalues the organic and personal.
• The Dollar: Symbolizes the measurable, practical world of commerce. Contrasted with the intangible emotional and environmental value of the trees.

Christmas Trees is a deceptively simple poem with rich emotional and philosophical depth. Through a modest rural encounter, Robert Frost explores enduring themes: the commodification of nature, the meaning of ownership, and the contrast between materialism and generosity. Ultimately, the poem offers a quiet but profound affirmation: that some things—like beauty, nature, and kindness—are worth more when shared than when sold.

Frost’s closing wish for a Merry Christmas is not just seasonal—it’s a reminder of the human values that lie beyond price tags, and the unseen riches that live in silence behind our homes.