华盛顿的圣诞传统（在线收听）

华盛顿的圣诞传统

Visiting a Christmas tree farm in search of the perfect tree is what many American families do at Christmas time including this young family.

圣诞节期间，参观圣诞树农场，挑选心仪圣诞树是许多美国家庭的圣诞选择，也包括这个年轻家庭。

We have our Christmas tree. We're going to take it home and decorate it. It's kind of a backwards concept, to take a tree from outside and bring it indoors. We're putting lights on it and ornaments, lots of ornaments. You collect the ornaments for years. I got ones from since I was 5 years old. It's fun!

我们挑选了圣诞树。将它带回家，装扮一番。我们颠倒顺序，买个圣诞树回家。将装饰品，小灯泡放在上面，我们要放许多装饰品。你的装饰品已收藏多年。有一些是我从5岁开始收藏的。乐趣无穷！

Abby has been coming to Krop's Crops since she was 7. For her,buying a Christmas tree at this local tree farm brings back lots of childhood memories and preserves her family tradition.

从7岁起，艾比一直在克罗普农场购买圣诞树。对他来说，在当地购买圣诞树唤起了他许多童年回忆，而家庭传统也因此而得到延续。

During Christmas season, visitors can also buy holiday decorations, such as poinsettias, wreaths and ornaments. The farm also sells seasonal vegetables, local honey and handicrafts all year round.

圣诞期间，游客可以前来购买圣诞装饰物，例如猩猩木、花环以及装饰物。这座农场还全年售卖应季蔬菜，当地蜂蜜以及手工艺品。

Larry Krop is the owner of this eight-hectare farm, which employs three generations of the Krop family.

拉里·克罗普是这片八公顷农场主，克罗普三代都在这里工作。

There's a lot of customers who come in and said, Larry, this is our 22nd, 23rd, 24th year (of coming to the farm). We go back to 1986, so it's almost 30 years coming up next year, that we've been selling trees up here.

许多顾客光顾农场，他们跟我说拉里，这是我第22次，第23次，第24次来到这里。我们从1986年就在这里卖树，马上要满30年了。

Although he has employees, Krop relies more on his children.

尽管农场雇佣职工，但克罗普还是更依赖他的孩子们。

Basically you're your own boss. Even though I work for my dad, we do what we know, what we need to get done being able to come up with ideas, new ideas of things that we can do for the business and other side businesses that we can work off of the land.

从根本上来讲，我们都是自己做主。虽然我给爸爸打工，但我们还要能够想出新点子，新想法，看看能不能在这片土地上创造其它产业，其它副业。

It takes about five to 10 years for the trees to reach the ideal height between 1 and 4 meters. Prices vary from $48 to $400. The Fraser and Canaan firs are bestsellers.

圣诞树的理想高度是1-4米，要想长到这样的高度需要约5-10年。价格在48-400美金之间。卖的最好的是弗雷泽和迦南冷杉。

After someone finds their perfect tree, the staff will clean and bale it to make sure the needles do not damage the customer's car on their way home. For almost thirty years, Krop's Crops has played an important role in preserving the Christmas tradition for families around the Washington area.

寻到中意之树后，工作人员会将它清理打包，以免针叶在路途中划伤车子。近30年来，克罗普农场在延续华盛顿圣诞传统上占据重要地位。