Pine City decks up for Christmas, NY festivities

SHILLONG: To see what ‘real’ Christmas trees look like, one can come to the ‘Scotland of the East’, where the wind whistles through evergreen alpine trees.The numerous tiny reflections of the early morning sun from frost-covered pine needles (leaves) and cones usher in Christmas and New Year in the city of pines and orchids.It’s a tradition to put up decorated pine branches at doorsteps and not so much of synthetic Christmas trees, not only in Shillong but also throughout the undulated and evergreen hills of Meghalaya.“We have real Christmas trees here and not the ones bought from departmental stores,” points out Julia as she decorates a pine branch freshly cut from a nearby forest.In fact, the tallest and most elegant “living Christmas tree”, which is one of oldest pine trees in the city is to be found on the fore lawns of the All Saints’ Cathedral, one of the oldest churches in the NE.The towering coniferous pine tree, which branches out taking the shape of a typical Christmas tree, is kept illuminated for almost a month beginning well before Christmas and into the New Year attracting locals and tourists alike.We also published the following articles recently