Article: More families come together to cut a tree: Especially in the West, people head into the woods to fell their balsam fir - and bond under winter's bunting.(USA)

Every year around this time, Joe McKay gets ready for a familiar holiday ritual - getting the family Christmas tree.

For Mr. McKay, though, the trip involves more than heading to a roadside stand and strapping the tree on top of his car. Ever since he first began the tradition with his children more than half a century ago, McKay has been bundling up, preparing a sled, and heading into the forest with a Swede saw to fell his own evergreen.

It's a practice that still thrives in many rural corners of America. This year, tens of thousands of wild-tree adherents in the Rockies alone are slogging through deep snows searching for the ideal Christmas totem - ...

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