Yes I heard many people talk about the Christmas Bud from way back in the day. Here in Southern California I never remember the Christmas bud coming around perhaps it was before my time. We did get certain strains sometimes that had a Christmas tree pine smell but I never remember it ever called that it was just random strains that had a pine tree nose. Im glad you like that SSH Catpiss from Old School Chronic. I grew that same one from him along with a few others in his catalogue. He has some great genetics and I don't want to talk shit about him he was always very cool when I dealt with him. However his Catpiss stuff was good but IMO it was not the flaming hot ammonia nose-burn that I remember from my youth. As frosty and beautiful as his SSH Catpiss was I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't quite the donkey punch to the nose that came from that Trainwreck/Skunk Catpiss strain I grew in college. If my TW/Skunk Catpiss was a 10/10 then I would rate JR's SSH Catpiss at like a 6/10. Very frosty and high in THC and beautiful flower and most would LOVE his stuff however from a purely terpene smell perspective it wasn't even in the same ballpark as the terps that came off the TW/skunk Piss I grew back in the day. It was out of control honestly it was so loud it was insane.
When "sinsemilla" came around 40+ years ago, it had that sweet pine smell, and was really enticing. When I grew various "mids" bag seed in the late 80s-early 90s, some of it had a cat pissy kind of smell, but a lot of it had a sort of spiciness where we often said "This is what all of this 'Mexican regular"/mids stuff would be like if they grew it and cured it right." It was LIKE the bag weed mids we bought, just better, fresher, more
terpenes......it seemed like there were 2 general types of phenos........the ones that leaned towards spice, and the ones that leaned more cat pissy.
I notice some of you are referring more to the "Road Kill Skunk" than "Skunk#1". Even very early on it was all about crossing Skunk#1 with everything.......
Big Bud, Northern Lights......and quite often another, new variation came about with good results. Bigger, heavier buds, higher THC, earlier maturing......and while I've never had "Road Kill Skunk" or any of the other "stink" variations, "death skunk", double death stank skunk", whatever they were called, there is nothing like that original, true Skunk#1 when done right. It fell somewhere between perfume and skunk, more towards the latter depending on when it was picked. That "death/skunk" smell was never the only part of it. There was also this perfumey aspect to it, and it might be that specific complexity that has been bred out over time. The "rotten" part may have been cranked up, and I totally get the appeal of that too, I'd actually love to grow one of these varieties too.
People who aren't into weed don't understand the appeal of these varieties, it's kind of funny.........why would someone WANT stuff that smells like skunk, death, gas, rot, cat piss....? Because it's not just those smells. We wouldn't want weed that actually smelled exactly like cat piss, it still has to smell like marijuana......no one would put their nose to an actual skunk and say "Oh yeah, that's good". It's these smells mixed with, part of marijuana
terpenes, together, that are enticing and desirable.