Christmas Trees

[hidmickey:myantidrug]

Fake. I guess it's just what I always grew up with. A fake tree with tons of colored lights, the whimsy ornaments (not the balls) like my Disney and cartoon ones and an angel on top, not a star (my grandma made angels for herself, her sisters, my mom, and my aunts that are really really cute). We keep our tree up all year because my mom starts swearing when she puts the lights on and let's just say that it kinda takes away from the Christmas feeling! (it was at that time when I would go an blast Christmas music for the purpose of both drowning her out and a little 'hey remember what time of year it is' reminder! )When it comes time to get it out of the living room we carry it down to the basement. Real ones just make way too much mess, especially with my OCD and all of my ornament rearranging! The smell is pretty but we always have Christmas candles going (not at once otherwise we'd probably pass out from the mixture of smells!) with cin., vanilla, etc. scents so it always has that "Christmas smell" in our house.

And now I'm unable to get out of the Christmasy feeling. What? 3 months? That's increadibly depressing.

 

[KrnB]

And now I'm unable to get out of the Christmasy feeling. What? 3 months? That's increadibly depressing.

Just go shopping, you'll find Christmas stuff in the stores already, which should help.

BTW - I love your signature. You're a great judge of "character"!

 

[deekaypee]

We don't do Christmas trees, as DH and I travel during the holidays and our cats would destroy one--fake or real--if we had one (we did try a couple of years). We don't really miss it. I think we're weirdly well-suited for one another.

 

[hidmickey:myantidrug]

Just go shopping, you'll find Christmas stuff in the stores already, which should help.

BTW - I love your signature. You're a great judge of "character"!

Haha, thanks for the suggestion! It's always a really happy day when the ornaments make their debut (which has actually been for a VERY long time but the new ones keep coming! )

As far as the sig. goes, I could say the exact same thing to you! Your children are absolutly adorable! Congrats!

 

[TinkNH]

I prefer real ..got my first real tree when I got married...mom always had fake ones. Sadly the DD didnt react well to the real one..allergies? so we had to get a fake one...I will probably try a real one again when she is a bit older...

 

[lclark0621]

It just doesn't feel like Christmas without that real Christmas Tree smell in my living room.

When we lived back in NY, we used to bundle up every year & head out to a farm the weekend after Thanksgiving. Most years there was snow on the ground. We would walk up & dowl aisle after aisle of trees searching for the perfect one. We would find it, the tree farm workers would send the tree through the basket net & tie it to our roof. Oh DH & I LOVED doing it!

Now here in TX, there is NOTHING like the tree farms back home. In fact the first couple of years we went looking for trees, the nursery people thought we were nuts for wanting to tie a tree to the top of our car roof. And NONE of them had that basket wire stuff to sinch the tree up.

Plus we usually go looking for a tree in short sleeve shirts, MAYBE jeans, sometimes shorts. It is just not the same!

Most of the nursery places here "flock" their trees (spray the white fake snow on them). I dont like that look at all & there are hardly any trees without it on them.

Yet we still go on the hunt every year. Sadly this maybe our last year with a real tree for a while. Our new house that is under construction has a 20 foot high ceiling in the living room where the tree will go. But DH & I agree we are going to need a monster Christmas tree, 12 feet or better, once we are in the new house. And you just cant find real trees that big here, and if you can, they are upwards of $700. So looks like next year we will probably have a fake one. On the plus side, that means we can put the tree up Thanksgiving weekend.

I will probably have to buy a whole bunch of real wreaths to hang inside the house though to get that smell.

Oh how I miss tree farms!

 

[olena]

Always fake. We tried a real tree once and ended up in the emergency room with the worst asthma attacks in family history.

 

[meloneyb21]

My aunt went and got a real tree one year, and when she brought it home and put the lights on it, she saw the reflection of something moving in it. It ended up being spiders. I think there was a nest or something inside the tree . She started getting fake trees ever since.

 

[Eric95403]

It'll be fake for a while for us....we just bought a 9' tree at Costco last week. We used to do the real tree thing...drove the family to the tree farms in the area, looking for the best tree. That was fun....cutting it down, carrying it around the farm, strapping it to the roof of your vehicle, hoping it didn't fall off on the way home. The pine needle mess... Then time became scarce and we couldn't seem to make it to the tree farms any more. Home Depot has nice trees at great prices. Now we've gotten real lazy....the fake tree. We'll see how this goes. One question....what happens when the pre-strung lights on the fake trees burn out? Those fuse things never work....

 

[CPM]

Fake. I leave them up a very long time. I have five trees and a huge ornament collection. I do hang real wreaths for the smell.

 

[sk8ingmom]

Nothin' but real here. Trees must reach the ceiling, which means at least 12 ft. in this house. It is Oct and I am looking at a permanently affixed screw eye in my ceiling to anchor my tree once a year, They don't make a consumer available stand to hold my trees!


If you use a fake tree, your vacuum won't smell like Christmas in March. Why bother?

 

[NMAmy]

I prefer real but we've made the switch to fake. I bought the first one when dd and I were living in an apartment and it was just too difficult to have a real one. I'm also allergic to pine and I've always been willing to put up with it for the yummy smell but I must admit that I do enjoy not sniffling and sneezing for the entire Christmas season now.

I also love that I can decorate on Black Friday and the trees will still be around on Christmas.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

My DD has allergies and the Doctor told us years ago to switch to a fake tree. While I do miss the smell I don't miss the needles falling all over the place.

 

[golfgal]

Always fake. I don't believe in cutting down trees you'll use for only a month or two.

You do realize that Christmas tree farms are actually good for the environment right? They plant 1000's of trees each year to be used for Christmas trees in the years to come and that contributes to the earth's ecosystem. Without the demand for real Christmas trees, these tree farms would probably become shopping malls or housing developments.

I prefer real although artificial trees do have their benefits. I am considering buying an artificial tree after Christmas this year so I can have 2 trees, a real one in the family room and I would love to have a fake one, with fancy decorations, in our bay window in the dining room.

 

[Nancyg56]

I use Yankee Candles Mistletoe and Christmas Wreath to make the room smell nice.

Me too! We always had a live tree, and while it was nice it sure was messy. Last year we bought a fake white tree and decorated it with silver and white ornaments. It was beautiful! DH had to have a real tree so we also had one, but this year I am hoping to convince him that a nice new fake green tree will be just perfect.

 

[JunieJay]

I have 3 trees every year - 2 fake and 1 real. I like the fake ones so I can put them up early and leave them up late but I gotta also have my real tree. Need that smell of balsam in the house!

 

[Laura]

Always fake. I don't believe in cutting down trees you'll use for only a month or two.

I agree, and there are other ways to get the pine smell without cutting down an entire tree. Besides that, I can have my fake tree up as long as I want!

 

[JunieJay]

One question....what happens when the pre-strung lights on the fake trees burn out? Those fuse things never work....

I'm curious about this too, I never bought a tree with the pre-strung lights for this reason. Plus I like lots and lots of lights on my trees and the pre-strung ones never had enough to my liking.

 

[T1130]

We also have a fake one here. I am to afraid of fire to get a real one.

 

[Barb D]

I have a small living room and allergies, so I'm happy with my narrow-profile fake tree. It doesn't take up much floor space and I'm not congested all holiday season.

This year it's not going up until 2 weeks before Christmas instead of Thanksgiving weekend. I find we stop "noticing" it if it's up too long.