Fake or Real Christmas Tree

I was a lifelong fan of real trees until I was stationed in Germany. Getting a decent looking real tree there was almost impossible and getting rid of them after Christmas was a pain. I considered switching then but I still resisted the temptation. However, the seed was planted so when I was posted to the Chicago and saw what they wanted for a decent real tree in Chicagoland I converted to a artificial tree and stuck with them for 10 years. In 1994, after returning to the USA from Germany, my oldest daughter talked me into trying the real tree again. Alas, that experience drove me back to the artificial trees the next year. Worse, I now have a prelit tree so I have even stopped putting on my own lights. Next? I saw one the other day that you pull out of the box, plug in, push a button and it expands decorated and all. I'll wait until all of the kids are off on their own to make that switch!

 

Every menorah I've ever lit was artificial.

 

Really...

Wax or electric?

 

Fake all the way. No needles to clean up, don't have to worry about keeping water in the stand, and clean-up is a breeze.....toss it into the box until next year.

 

You can buy that scent in a can.

 

Oh Tannenbaum

Faux. My wife is a conservationist! She also bought 480 lights for the tree this year. We live in the rather cold north of Scotland. You can imagine the electricity bill...

Peace,

Dave C.

 

That reminds me of the artificial tree that Mr. Haney was hawking that came with genuine spruce juice just for the yule tide aroma.

BTW, you should have at least had a "None" selection. I haven't put up a Christmas tree in several years.

 

It's not a Christmas issue...

It is a Christmas tree issue. It does seem to ignite a lot of controversy every year among those who put up a tree.

 

"Real" deserves two sub-categories:
(a) live tree, in a planter tub, hauled in each year
(b) real dried out tree from the Safeway

When we lived on the Big Island, there was one afternoon, only, when the barge from Oahu arrived with the real trees. The word went out and everyone rushed down to the docks. They sold out quickly, and that was that. "Mele Kalikimaka" we dutifully said.

 

Fake. When we put up a real tree my wifes' cats went nuts climbing it and stuff. They pretty much ignore the fake one except for the low-hanging fruit/ornaments.

 

No tree. Remember St Boniface!

 

Fake for me, thanks.

I heard a story on the radio not long ago that the trendy new tree to have was one that hung upside down.

Go figure.

 

I should clarify. Despite my pointing out years ago that Dr Martin Luther did not invent the Christmas tree (many scowls, Janko feared for his life), there is a huge tree--fake, due to fire codes--in the back of the church. There are two small menorahs on the altar in Advent.

 

Christmas tree

I got a fake one this year with the lights already on it. It is not impressive looking but it is okay.

We used to have real Christmas trees when the kids were little. Now they are all grown and it is just not worth the bother. This is the first year that I had to decorate the thing myself.

As a child we always had a "real" hemlock Christmas tree because that was the only kind of evergreen tree that grew naturally on our farm. My father was not exactly a lover of Christmas and he would never have allowed for "buying" a Christmas tree whether it was real or not. Hemlocks do not have a nice shape but it was better than nothing. I recall my parents having terrible fights every year right before Christmas. My mother wanted to buy all of the kids something for Christmas but she did not drive and had to depend on my father or my grandmother (his mother) to take her shopping. She ended up winning this battle every year, somehow because we always got something for Christmas.

I have enjoyed surprising my own kids with something nice for Christmas, and having a real tree and all that. I am saddened that they are grown, because, to me Christmas is not the same without small children in the house.

 

Re: Christmas tree

I know the feeling. My two oldest are out of the house, one in Canada for grad school and the other in Japan with the USAF, so it is a quiet holiday season. The little guy is still here though and as an irrepressible Christmas spirit, he actually sings when he decorates the tree, he fills up a lot of the void. ONe will be home for the actual Chrismas and we will call the other so we will do the best we can.

 

Real. Every time. Fifty to even a hundred bucks -- and needles -- are a small price to pay. Disposal, afterward, is as simple as dragging it to the curb during the first week in January. Topping-up the water in the little thingy at the bottom is easily incorporated into one's routine for a lousy two weeks. The canned smell isn't authentic and doesn't require a sophisticated sense of smell to detect. Conservation's not an issue because such trees are grown on tree farms... usually on land where no trees ever grew before, nor on which would be growing any now were it not for the planted-in-rows-by-humans variety intended for sale at Christmastime to suckers like me.

While I'm at the Christmas tree place, I always purchase a real wreath for the front door, and several poinsettia plants, too. I sign-up for the full snow job... checkbook in hand, of course.

 

Christmas and kids

All three of mine will actually come home for Christmas this year. My son is a senior at boarding school (today is his 17th birthday). My daughter, who just turned 19 will be home for a little while but I have rarely seen her since she went off to Princeton at age 17. She spent last summer in Japan. Now she has informed me that she will be spending two months in Japan again in the summer of '06 (this time she got an Internship over there, so it is not supposed to "cost" anything). The other is married and working toward her Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. I'm very proud of my kids (obviously), but I am sad that they are all grown up. My husband doesn't want any more kids. :-(

 

Started this thread...

When I saw statistics indicating approximately 62% have artificial trees and 38% real. Wondered how we stacked up on here. Looks like we are real close, within the margin of error anyway......

 

Fiber Optic Tree

I got a really nice fiber optic tree two years ago. It was a full size one not just a little 4ft tall tree. It has very full branches and is not at all like a Charlie Brown cheesey model.

I found the tree at the Target after Christmas sale. The next year I went back and they no longer carried it. All they had the next year were some trees that looked bare.

I'm very thankful that I have the tree because it really lights up well without the need to install lights and it looks a lot better than the other trees that I've seen.