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One of the great things about being president is that you need never worry about finding a Christmas tree. Timber companies and tree farms line up each year to donate their choicest evergreen to the White House. One of the not-so-great things about being Alexandria City Arborist John Noelle is that Weyerhaeuser Co. et al. don’t give a hoot about making your holidays happy, which means that you sometimes have to go begging for a decent evergreen. With a mere 106 days left until Christmas, Noelle is desperately seeking Alexandrians to donate three trees—one for city hall and one for each end of King Street. “Perhaps that beautiful pine or spruce tree you planted so many years ago and is now so large you can’t see the house,” writes Noelle in a hopeful press release, “could be the Christmas tree of the year?” If so, city work crews will chainsaw that unwanted fir, pine, spruce, “or even holly” from your yard, then grind the stump to oblivion. And as a bonus, city fathers will use a special International Society of Arborculture tree-evaluation formula to determine your tax deduction. That typically comes to only about $100-200, but think of it this way: You’ll not only lift the spirits of Old Town’s shopping hordes, but you’ll also be responsible for a joyous Noelle.