Here’s an epiphany for you: there’s absolutely no disposing of Christmas trees and other holiday greenery in parks and conservation areas in Wellesley. It might seem like tossing nature into nature, but it’s actually illegal and bad for the environment. It’s also aesthetically displeasing. You know it’s going to take that tree about ten years to break down into the soil, right?

How to say good-bye, fine firs

Take your Christmas tree to the Wellesley Recycling and Disposal Facility (RDF). At this time of year they have a seriously depressing-looking pile of former holiday glory, dried out and ready to be ground to bits like so many stale gingerbread men.

RDF hours: M – W, 7am – noon; Th – Sat, 7am – 3:45; closed Sundays

Bringing Christmas trees and greenery to the RDF is the right way to dispose of them. This pile at the dump will eventually be ground into wood chips. From there, it will be used around town at playgrounds and for landscaping.

If you can’t make it over to the RDF, hire industrious Wellesley High School student Jack Kenney to bring your tree there for you. Contact him at 617-777-4150 or by email at [email protected] Rates: $15 if the tree is waiting for him outdoors; $25 if you’d like him to come inside and get it.

The trees on the other side of the fence

We admit that we’re a little jealous of the Joneses. In the adjacent town of Natick, residents need only heave-ho their tree curbside, head off to work, and by the time they get back home the greenery will have disappeared. No, it’s not elfin magic. That’s just how Natick’s Department of Public Works rolls. No, we haven’t pulled a sneaky and left our tree in front of a Natick house.

Natick Christmas tree — We absolutely, positively did not toss our tree in front of this Natick house.

At our house we observe a highly personalized Christmas tree ceremony each year. First, we take the tree away from the only field it’s ever known, and we set it up in in our heated house. Next, we lavish the tree with ornate trappings. After a few weeks we declare that we “need our living room back.” We then take back all of our ornate trappings and evict the tree from our home. Months later, we set the Christmas tree on fire. A merry tradition, indeed.