Outdoors can play enjoyable role in a kid’s Christmas

FAMILIES — Aidan Long puts his muscle into bringing home the Monana family’s 2011 Christmas tree last weekend.

“No freshly felled fir ever smelled so sweet to me,” said his dad, Ben.

A family get-to-gether isn’t the only reason to go to a tree farm or buy a Forest Service permit and harvest your own tree, according to five good reasons from The Nature Conservancy.