ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Pining for an Old-Fashioned Tree

One of the more visible and pleasant signs of the holiday season is the Christmas tree. Most public places and office buildings, including the lobby of The Times, display one.

And because of the generosity of one company, 230 Santa Ana schoolchildren with fine attendance records have received a tree as a gift this year. The 6- to 7-foot firs were given to the children by the school district and J.M. Peters Co., a Newport Beach developer. Children from needy families were singled out. Had they not been rewarded with the gift, the children might not have had a tree this year.

Their trees will not be exactly like the 17-foot specimen in the lobby of Orange County Edition of The Times in Costa Mesa. That tree is perfectly shaped, right up to its top branches. It is a dark, healthy-looking green.

Upon closer inspection, however, one can see that Mother Nature was given a little help: where the tall fir was a little sparse, branches had been nailed to its trunk to fill in, held up with wires. The tree came with instructions: “Paint green and flock ends.” We are surprised they didn’t add: “Spray with pine scent daily.”

Somehow all this takes some of the mystique away. It’s a little like plastic surgery: more fun if no one knows about it. And it’s something like gazing at a beautiful sunset and saying, “Now, if it just had a little more red right there. . . .”

No matter the perfection of a tree, it brings a certain happy feeling to the holiday season. We’re glad that the Santa Ana schoolchildren will get to share that, too.