Arbol de Navidad

Real Christmas trees don't seem to be part of the holiday tradition in Montevideo. I haven't seen any real trees for sale, but artificial Christmas trees are available in all the big stores. They range from little Charlie Brown trees to nice six-footers. We bought a mid-sized one (maybe 4 feet tall) for our apartment. The first tree I put in the cart had an odd note handwritten on the box label: otoñal. Autumn-something? That seemed a little strange. I poked a hole in the box to peek inside-- it had brown plastic needles. I had almost bought an artificial dead tree! Anyway, I traded it for a green version and we picked out a few decorations and brought it home.