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\cold, and you%u2019d have a bottle in your pocket and a fire burning near you just to try and keep warm.%u201dBY LINUS GELBERChristmas trees peered up the rows in sellers%u2019 lots; Christmas trees ran in spiny herds down major streets; Christmas trees clustered near churches; Christmas trees lumbered patiently on sidewalks and curbs; Christmas trees perched daintily on car racks; and Christmas trees were carried proudly away in the arms of triumphant families. There were bundled Christmas trees and unleashed Christmas trees. There were plush, %u00bbeedly Christmas trees and skinny, tall Christmas trees. There were Christmas trees of all sizes, colors, compositions and orientations. Without a doubt, at this moment the evergreen has taken over as the dominant shrubbery in the borough of Kings, and has the market hanging on its limbs from here up to the Day of Christmas.It was a perfect day last Saturday to hunt down The Definitive Christmas Tree, and a lot of families were into the project. The sun was out and gleaming away, the sky streamed with clouds and the temperature held at a reasonable 40 degrees, and crowds of the festive turned out to pick up a pine for the living room before the tree-buying crunch. No longer, mind you, does one simply hop out and pick up a tree at the last minute. In these sorry days of pre-packaged sentiments, Hallmark greetings and artificial trees, if you%u2019re going to buy the real thing you%u2019re going to do it in style, which usually entails a full family safari, with kids, spouses, measurements and tree stands firmly in hand.%u2018%u2018Most people really come out to get the whole thing done with%u2014they want to get something the kids will like,%u201d says volunteer salesman Steve Hopkins from the courtyard of the First Unitarian Church in Brooklyn Heights, surveying layers of Douglas Fir and Blue Spruce trees piled up for the annual sale to raise funds for the Brooklyn Heights Montessori School. He grins a cold, crinkled smile and points to a newiywed couple inspecting their eighth tree and noting a slight imperfection on one side. %u201c You do get all kinds,%u201d he says. %u201c Like, watch that red-headed woman: you can tell she%u2019s a professional%u201cat this.%u201d The bare spot proves too much for her, and the tree is ditched for number nine (which has a ragged top), number ten (which doesn%u2019t fit the stand), number eleven (which is too tall), and finally number twelve, which should look nice near the fireplace.SANTA%u2019S LITTLE BUSINESSMENWhen I was younger and spent Christmas under snowdrifts in the sticks of Maine, our holiday tree was a big deal: we%u2019d drag a sled up in back to the forest, fell a tree that hit the balance of being big enough to be aesthetic and small enough to make it into the shed, and take a good partof the remainder of the day toiling the tree down the hill and into the house.Of course, you have to make allowances for the urban environment, but from here it looks like most people are getting shortended in their trees, as far as holiday joy and organic pride go. The people having the most fun seem to be the sellers. %u201c This is like vaction all over again,%u201d Hopkins laughed, wrapped thick in a pungent, aromatic pine smell. %u201c 1 like the smell, and it feels really good,%u201d agreed 13-year-old John Kerwin, in a lot run by Irving Blinchik on Henry St. in the Heights just below Montague, as he scuffed his feet in a thick padding of pine needles. %u201c Just write that we aim to please,%u201d said Blinchik, stalking the front of his lot in blustery glee.TREES IN THE SLOPEIn the Slope, trees are doing a heavy business%u2014just tooling down Seventh Avenue you spot nearly a dozen markets. The story seems the same, with salesmen and volunteers hopping about vigorously td stay warm, positively radiating with chilled pride. %u201c Fundraising is usually a very uncomfortable thing,%u201d huffed Barbara Shapiro, under the arches of the Old First Reformed Church for a benefit sale. %u201c Thisis a great way to do it, and get into the Christmas spirit%u2014and it smells great.%u201d Consumers last Saturday were a picky lot, though, niggling over which branch goes where and trying vainly to fit giant trees, bursting with vitality, into dinky holders. It would be hard to say that the tree sellers had taken advantage of the market in creating an industry out of ritual and legend: rather, it seems that thebuyers have blundered blindly but openarmed to the point of nearly demanding bastardation of the myth. The tree-buying chatter centered around making the holiday %u201cjust so%u201d ; in the quest for a perfect Christmas, so much of the environment surrounding the holiday has become controlled that the sparks that should spurt vividly from the occasion have dimmed and fallen to sour embers for some.FOREST FOR THE TREES %u201c I sell trees to make money,%u201d announced Barry Berkowitz at Willie%u2019s Market in Boerum Hill, at Smith and Pacific Sts. Aw, come on, Barry, say I. %u201c Well, okay, I sell trees because I believe in good cheer and the Christmas spirit, and I want to spread joy everywhere and allThe Seasonover. Do you believe that one?%u201d Aw, come on, Barry. \grudgingly, %u201c it%u2019s a combination of the two.%u201dMost of the Christmas tree lots you see around are one-shot jobs, small-scale operations or couched in recently-born traditions, but Willie%u2019s has a bit of perspective. %u201c I%u2019ll give you some history for your story,%u201d Berkowitz tells me, strutting back and forth in front of the evergreen line-up. %u201c We%u2019ve been selling trees for as long as we%u2019ve been around%u2014what is that, 30 years? 35? I have customers I see only once a year, when they buy a tree at Christmas. For as long as I%u2019ve sold trees, 1 have people buying them from me. But you don%u2019t sell trees today like you used to,%u201d he says. %u201c You used to sell trees, back when winters were cold; it would be 5 or 10 degrees out, and you%u2019d have a bottle in your pocket and a fire burning near you just to try and keep warm,%u201d he continues. %u201c You%u2019d see friends, neighbors, everyone would come buy a tree. There was more joy years ago: now a tree costs me more than I used to sell it for, people go around, they get artificial trees and what the hell. It%u2019s just like everything else, like the economy and all.%u201d Willie%u2019s sells a few hundred trees each season, which Berkowitz contrasts with %u201cthousands%u201d he remembers that used to be Sold.As for the people buying, Willie%u2019s pacifies more than other spots: elsewhere trees are priced as per kind and height, but Berkowitz says his are judgemental and also take fullness and beauty into consideration. Pointing out the differences between a particularly sparse tree and a smaller but rounder one, he comments that \%u201c some people are fanatics about it.%u201d TREE FOR ALL .In any case, you%u2019re running slightly ahead of the crunch if you pick up your tree the instant you read this: the best are still around, and things stay pleasanter when they%u2019re less crowded. %u201c Tilings have been poking along for the last week or so,%u201d notes Steve Hopkins, and he guesses that Unitarian will sell out \before Christmas.%u201dAs for me. I%u2019m not getting a tree this year. My family is once again heading up to Maine for theirs. I can think about them. Some of my friends are also picking up one or two and I can look at theirs. If you ask me, that%u2019s what it%u2019s all about: once you start hassling through the whole process, it%u2019s lost its point. It%u2019s enough for me that the cold is sharp and lovely and the pine perfume is a sweet, heady scent%u2014I can carry them with me every place I go at this time of year for less than cost and I don%u2019t have the agonies of picking out just the right tree.BILQISYemen & OrientalCuisineA Queen of ShebaRestaurant \\in which, during hereraYemen contributed tocivilization. Therefore,from Arabia%u201c MARHABA%u201d82-84 Clark St.Bkiyn Heights237-9365GoldenComb%u201c Unisex HairSpecialist%u201dSuper Cutsfor Guys & Gals60 Henry St.Phone: 596-4666-7Lib e ra to r B o o ksto re2 0 to 5 0 % O F F /DECEMBER 1 8 -2 2 BUCK i HISPANIC LITERATURE,W O M tN , LA B O R H I3 IU K Y , C H IN A ,PUERTO RICO, POETRY AND MORE/37 FIFTH A V E T F Q OBROOKLYN f O O \BRENNAN'SWine and Liquors, Inc.Full Line of Imported& Domestic Chilled WinesOPEN 8 A.M.-12 MIDNIGHT455 Atlantic Ave. (Cor. Nevins St.)TR-5-8877SEA SO N %u2019S G R EETIN G SFRO MT H E S TA FF O FK L A H R R E A L T Y41 Schermerhorn St.624-1943 %u2022 624-2091I %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00ae %u00aeS e a s o n sG r e e tin g sfro mIrv%u2019sS ta tio n a r ya t 7 t h A v e . & 4 t h S t .S e e u s f o r y o u r T im e x W a tc h e s , G i f ts ,G r e e t i n g C a r d s , G if t W f a pMon-Sat 6:30 am-6 pmSun. 6:30 am-1:30 pmOPEN ALL DAYSUNDAY, D ec. 2 37 8 8 - 3 9 9 7<91111iJ o e %u2019sP la c e2 6 4W a v e rly A v e . %u00a7B ro o k ly n , N .Y . |N.V. Dally NewsOct. 11th. 1979 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605 %u2605_ 'Joe%u2019s Place is the kind ofrestaurant to take| Manhattan friends who| believe that Brooklyn has| no interesting restaurants\P H O F N IV1 Oct. 29.1976I Open 4-12 every night| except Monday & Tuesday| Only 5 minutes from BAM1 622-9244 Credit CardsailllllH IlillH IIIU H N Ilu in ilM IIIH IIIIIll' Serving BrooMm tor over 100 veers vwtri reiaMe service, superbartistry, quality (lowers and plants with prompt delivery.Wire service available.f e wCorner of25th St.& 5th Ave.Also located at240 Prospect Park West768-0800Credit Cards Accepted* by PhoneDecember 20,1979, The PHOENIX, Page 13