Real or Artificial Trees... What do you do?

[tl_swift]

We talk about getting an artificial tree every year but we can't get ourselves to do it. We have such a fun time going as a family to pick out the tree it is hard to let go of that tradition. The night we go I always make a Thermos of hot coco and bring a bad of mini marshmallows. We pretty much know which lot we are going to buy from but we shop a couple of them anyway. It is all part of the experience I guess. The kids run around trying to find the "perfect tree" and then gloat afterwards about who found it. All that would be gone if we went artificial.

 

[EMom]

Growing up, we always had real ones, until........

The year my mother let me take my boyfriend and find one in the woods. Yes, the woods. We didn't have tree farms, we just went out in the woods and found a good cedar one. Mama and her friend took off in one direction and BF and I went in the other. We found a nice tree, chopped that sucker down and hauled it back to the car. That was back when car trunks were big enough to fit a frat party in, but the tree was still too big to fit inside. Dang, trees don't SEEM so big when they're out in the middle of a forest......

We tied it halfway in and dragged it home. Then we had to hack it half to death to get it inside the house. Finally, a shadow of its former glory, we put it up. Mama declared we were buying an artificial one the day after Christmas when they went on sale. Back then, you had to wait until Dec. 26 for sales like that. So we had artificial ones from then until I married.

We stuck with that plan for a few years and then DH and I went for real trees. We stayed with them for a few years, but that went belly up for 2 reasons.

(1) One year, we paid a fortune for what turned out to be a half-paralyzed tree. It looked good at first, but as time passed, I kept hearing ornaments drop on the floor. I'd go chastise the cats for knocking off ornaments and they'd look at me innocently, instead of making the whirring sound and stomping their feet they way they usually did when they were guilty. Then I finally witnessed what was really happening. I was sitting by the tree and an ornament just slid right off a branch.....because the branch had gone all limp and floppy. It was not perky, but blah. I stood back and one side of the tree was still fine, with upright branches. But the other was suffering from branch flop and my ornaments were just sliding off to the floor. I'd been blaming the kitties wrongfully! Basically, my tree was a stroke victim.

(2) The main reason we no longer have real trees....Allergies. I would sneeze and blow my nose nonstop the whole time the tree was in the house. But when the cats started sneezing, I knew it was time to invest in an artficial tree. Kitties have a hard time blowing their noses.

 

[RachaelRol]

Fake and I hate it. Ds was allergic to trees at age 1. We went to this fancy tree store in out town and spent $400 on a tree. (Its gorgeous) He is 6 now. So we're average 80 a year for the tree so far.

I'll use it for 4 more years when the cost per year drops to $40. (He is no longer allergic to trees.) Then I'll go back to real trees.

I love the smell, look of real trees. Always had one growing up.

 

[M&N]

I have to have the fake. My parents worked in retail and put in lots of extra hours between Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had to put the tree up Thanksgiving so it needed to last. As I got older, I developed allergies so that was that. Cannot even do the scented candles.
(Almost didn't find this with so many responses. )

 

[pperfectmom]

We always have a real tree. We used to go buy one at a tree farm and cut it ourselves but the last several years we have just harvested a cedar from our farm. Last year it was 22 feet tall!!!!! We can only leave it up a couple of weeks because of the fire hazard but it is beautiful and smells sooo good. For those of you who don't want a real one because you think it shouldn't be cut, don't worry about that. Trees are a renewable resource whereas plastic is definately not. Also, most Christmas tree farmers are good stewards of the land and will replant a new one to replace yours. Most communities will pick up your tree curbside and turn it to mulch too. All a plastic tree is good for once you don't want it anymore is taking up landfill space.

 

[Donnask8pro]

No choice. I have a son who is handicapped. To fearful of having a tree set on fire.

 

[EMom]

Background: When I was a teenager, I dated this guy who lived in a turn of the century mansion with 3 stories, 14 fireplaces, an incredibly wide staircase straight from Gone with the Wind, etc. I had fantasized about this house for years, wondering how I could ever get inside it to have a look. Then lo and behold, the guy asks me out and a VIP guest pass falls in my lap.

Anyway, at Christmas, they had a gorgeously decorated artificial tree. He comes over and helps me decorate our puny artificial tree with its inexpensive ornaments and seems to be having a great time doing it. He's talking about how much fun it is and asking me how we made the ornaments. I'm thinking, "Look, I've seen your Ritchie Rich tree and this looks like a Charlie Brown tree compared to it," but I phrased it more politely when I actually said it to him.

He then tells me that the family (kids) never get to decorate that tree. (This was before you could pay tree decorators, BTW.) They just decorated it once and when Christmas was over, they carried it up that huge double-wide staircase, opened up the mondo double doors to the "attic" that is actually a complete third floor, and covered it up until the following year. Then they hauled it down again. Thus was born my fantasy of the tree closet.

I'd have married that boy just to get that house if he hadn't been such a screw up.

 

[jeepgirl30]

I did not vote because we have a fake tree but oh how I love real ones!

Every year we'd get into a huge fight because i'd insist on a real tree and DH refused to help put it up because he hated them. He does not like the mess. Since I'd put it up myself i'd never get it straight or tight enough and it would fall over creating more mess.

I got a pre lit fake one 3 years ago. I hate to admit it but it is easier. I do miss the scent of a real tree though. But for us, the fights just are not worth it.

Now I think DS may have allergies anyway so a real one would not be an option.

 

[Siouxstone]

Artificial! I'm a retail manager and real trees take maintenance. DH has his hands full enough since I'm gone more. He would like a real tree, but understands. For years, I worked specialty retail and spent September & October putting up tree after tree after tree at work. DH didn't get a tree at all then (pre-DS). After putting up 30+ trees, there was no way I wanted one of those suckers at home!

 

[ekball]

REAL!!!! Although I now have a pre-lit fake one too for the dining room.

But our 'official' tree (not the fake one, which is for show) will ALWAYS be real. For us, heading to the tree farm the Sat. after Thanksgiving is THE start of the holiday season!!! (as well as the fight that ensues between DH & I over decorating the darn thing ) Wandering around the farm finding the perfect tree to cut down, cutting it down, having it wrapped up while we sip some hot cider and choose our fresh wreathes, then heading home to put it all up....THAT is Christmas to us!!! Can't wait!

 

[Along4theRide]

We get a real tree every year and love it!! We have a place locally that we can go to as early as July and tag a tree. We usually go mid October to get our pumpkins and tag our tree at the same time. Then the day after Thanksgiving we go (after shopping of course ) , find our tree and cut it down. A tractor and hay filled trailor comes around and picks us and our tree up! It's always a lot of fun, the kids really enjoy it and we always take our huskey with us too. A fresh tree makes the house smell sooo good that I don't mind cleaning up the needles!

 

[Lintasare]

Artificial all the way. My sis and I this year are buying a 4 ft prelit tree for our apt. The main tree is at my parents house and it's artificial as well. So much easier to deal with.

And if we want pine scent there are plenty of ways to get it from candles to oils to incense.

 

[PA Princess]

We have always had a real tree. I grew up in CA and we always had a fake, but dh and I since we have had kids have made the whole annual Christmas tree farm trip a family tradition. Our kids would truly be so sad to see this tadition end! They get so into our tree and each year a different kid (we have 4) takes a turning naming our tree Crazy I know, but holiday fun crazy.

Truth is I am terribly allergic and we should get a fake tree, but I really love the real ones. We live in an old (110+ years) Victorian house and a fake pre-lit tree just does not go with our home style...at least that is what I tell myself Dh is not in love with the tradition and he could be swayed to go the easier route, but the kids and I just love the real trees from the tree farm.

 

[rgrgirl]

I love to see real trees, but at my house i use a fake tree because it is easy. I guess I am a little lasy.

 

[mindyd]

We always went out and cut a real one down but last year I just wasn't in the mood for it so we got a artificial one and I love it so we will be doing it this year and I also have a small fiber optic one that I love.

 

[cnj]

Only real for us! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, going with the kids to pick out the tree and then decorating it when we get home. It is always different every year and that makes it fun.

 

[heartsy77]

It wouldn't be Christmas with out a real tree.

 

[mjantz]

Fake. We have serious tree allergies & I don't want to spend the holidays with half the family sick.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

We used to do real trees, but my ds got sick and was at a really high risk for fungal infections so the dr. said no live plants at all in the house so we got an artificial one that year, the following year I was pregnant and dh was deployed so another artificial one. Now I prefer them, easier set up/clean up.

 

[wowsmom]

We switched to artificial about 6 years ago - right after we figured out DS was allergic to the Douglas Fir we'd bought fresh every year. 3 ear infections, bronchitis and 3 months on a nebulizer (not to mention the predinisone) were enough to make us realize fresh trees were no longer an option.