Pre-Meal, The Newsletter by Will Guidara

Happy holidays!

Last year was the first Christmas our daughter Frankie—then three, turning four—got excited for the ritual of going to get a tree. I wanted the day to be really special for her, so I was psyched when my friend Zach told me he’d discovered an amazing Christmas tree stand called JVI Secret Gardens.

I’ll admit to being surprised when we drove up: the stand was right off a busy road and didn’t have the New England-style winter wonderland charm I’d been expecting.

But Frankie was delighted to pull her little brother around in an old-school red Radio Flyer wagon—even more so after she was offered a hot chocolate. Meanwhile, I was amused to see that the cut trees had been stuck back into the ground to look like they’d been planted, and that every one of them had a name.

We spent some time deciding between Bernie and Morty. (Morty for the win.) Then the whole family posed for a picture, wearing the Santa hats and elf ears the stand provided, in front of our new Christmas tree.

The kicker: before the team loaded a carefully wrapped Morty onto the top of our car, they sawed a round off the bottom of the trunk, so the tree could drink. But instead of tossing that round onto the compost, they drilled a hole and threaded a piece of wire through it: an ornament for our kids to decorate, and a permanent memento of Christmas 2024—which also happened to be our first in our new home.

Want to guess where we got our tree this year?

For the cost of a hot chocolate and twist of wire—plus a whole lot of creativity and intention—that stand turned a transaction into a tradition, ensuring they’ll be part of our family’s holidays from here on out.

Happy holidays from all of us at Unreasonable Hospitality! I’ll see you in the New Year.

Have a good service,
Will

P.S. This year’s tree is named Ziggy, and she is magnificent.