Real or Artificial Christmas Tree?

[Ben]

Poll for those that celebrate the holiday and have a tree. I just read an article on the big uptick of people getting real trees this Christmas, due (like everything else the MSM reports on) to the covid . Apparently as of last year, 80% of Americans now use artificial trees. That was a shocking number to me. I might have pegged it at 50% tops before reading the article.

Of course I'm old, and culture could have something to do with it. Where my dad grew up in Germany, they were surrounded by pine forests, so they would take the horse and buggy outside town to cut one down in the forest. Not something they could do when they moved to America, but we had real trees when I was a kid, with the trip of misadventures to the "A Christmas Story" tree lot. It would have just been considered unheard of to get an artificial tree.

I've always felt there was something "wrong" with an artificial tree. Of course this is strictly opinion. My sister grew up in the same house as me but has an artificial tree. She does it for ease, others might do it for environmental reasons or whatever. To each their own. For me, the real tree is importantly nostalgic, and an annual reminder of family Christmas when I was young. Those are probably my most pleasant memories growing up.

Anyways, that 80% number still threw me for a loop, so I was curious which way APS members that celebrate Christmas go.

[makattak]

I have always had an artificial tree. We have to replace about once a decade but its serves well. (Also after Christmas sales means the price is less than a real one.)

No pine needles, sap or any other concern and the children enjoy helping build the tree.

When it's time to replace, we will consider live, but artificial works great for us.

[RocketMan]

We've always had real trees in my family, both when growing up and after I married.  Artificial trees just don't seem right.

[zxcvbob]

We don't put up a tree now because it's just too much hassle and the house is too cluttered already.  Sometimes Mrs Z. puts up a tiny, skinny artificial tree (tabletop size) but that's so small it doesn't count :)  When Daughter was home, she and I would go to a Christmas tree farm about 20 or 30 miles away and cut our own tree.  There were much closer farms, but this one was owned by someone I knew from work, it was cheaper, and the drive out there was part of the ritual.

In very early January, I would cut up the dried-out tree and stuff it into the wood stove and burn it.  It burned like gasoline without the flashback, and flames would shoot out the top of the stovepipe.  I really wanted to burn it out in the front yard (safe enough because all the snow) but didn't think that would go over too well in town.

[Fly320s]

I grew up with artificial trees, but now that I live in NH and there are plenty of tree farms around, we get a real tree.  We have a favorite tree farm we use and we make it a two or three hour adventure with the kids.  We cut it down and drag it back to the car and the kids get to have hot cider and a donut or other treat.  I usually get a photo of me with my "kill." 

The tree farm supplies a saw, but I might take my Milwaukee cordless sawzall this year just for fun.

We have a new puppy this year, so getting and decorating a tree might not be such a good idea.

[WLJ]

Artificial
Got a new fiber optic one on the way, the old pre-lit tree shorted out last year. Rigel I'm looking at you. Hoping fiber optic will be a bit more pet safe.


On a related side note: I'm amazed how many incandescent pre-lit trees are still being sold. Did they make 20 billion of the things and they still haven't clear out the warehouses? I would think 99.9% would be LED by now but it seems like 80-90% of the pre-lit trees at Wallmart are still incandescent

[charby]

I prefer a real tree, like a Fraiser fir, but I know my dog would be pissing on it, so we haven't had a real tree since he was a year old (he's now 12). My wife probably has 5 artificial trees in inventory. This year she chose a 1950s aluminum tree with the color wheel. We also have a 5' tall painted wooden candy cane from the 1946 Christmas dance at the original Surf Ballroom (burned down in April 1947) that seems to make it into the living room every year too.

The Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, IA, is where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper preformed their last show on Feb 2, 1959 and died in a plane crash after the show leaving Mason City, IA to the next show.

[Fly320s]

Your wife stole a candy cane from the ballroom and that caused the ballroom to burn down and caused a plane crash that killed four people?

I wouldn't want that cursed candy cane in my house.

[charby]

Real trees are very environmental. One they it takes 7-20 years to grow a Christmas tree, depending upon the species and desired height, so that ground isn't being disturbed by a plow. This stores carbon. Grass is usually grown between the rows, so there is soil being saved and not lost to wind or water erosion. Real trees provide wildlife habitat while they are growing. Real trees after Christmas can be recycled into fish habbit, goat food, wild life habitat, composed, etc. If it wasn't for my dog, I'd have a real tree and sink the old one every year into my lake.

[charby]

Your wife stole a candy cane from the ballroom and that caused the ballroom to burn down and caused a plane crash that killed four people?

I wouldn't want that cursed candy cane in my house.

She bought it at a antique sale when we moved to town 5 years ago, no theft. Didn't realize it came from the original surf ballroom until I looked on the backside and it had a date, who painted it and where it was to be placed in the original ball room.

Plane crash occurred after a show in the 2nd Surf Ballroom (current one)

[zxcvbob]

Charby's wife killed Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.

The tree farm I used to goto use the Christmas trees to train walnuts trees to grow up straight instead of making lots of side branches.  Walnut logs were the real crop.  (I don't know how that turned out)

[Ben]

Real trees are very environmental. One they it takes 7-20 years to grow a Christmas tree, depending upon the species and desired height, so that ground isn't being disturbed by a plow. This stores carbon. Grass is usually grown between the rows, so there is soil being saved and not lost to wind or water erosion. Real trees provide wildlife habitat while they are growing. Real trees after Christmas can be recycled into fish habbit, goat food, wild life habitat, composed, etc. If it wasn't for my dog, I'd have a real tree and sink the old one every year into my lake.

Good points. I might look at sinking mine into my pond this year.

[Perd Hapley]

I use a real Christmas tree, just like Jesus did.

[charby]

Good points. I might look at sinking mine into my pond this year.

Takes a couple cinder blocks to hold it down. You'll see piles of old Christmas trees on the ice here tied to cinderblocks and old pallets starting in mid January here. Panfish love it.

[Brad Johnson]

When I was a kid, Dad would make our Christmas trees by wiring together cedar limbs. One big limb with pointed foliage for the top, the rest filled in with smaller leaves wired to the main limb. Dad has an artistic bent so they looked fantastic. Weighed a ton, though. Plus, when cedars dry out the leaves might as well be papier-mâché. They disintegrate at the slightest touch. Sweeping up fragments and dust from around the tree was a nightly ritual. You had to hang the lights with bulbs between the branches, not touching them, and we could only turn them on if we were in the room and there was a fire extinguisher handy. We also built it across the room from the fireplace, not next to it. The only difference between a dry cedar and a bucket full of gasoline is that gas is harder to ignite. Mom finally had enough and bought an artificial tree about the time I went off to college. Dad wasn't happy about the expense but Mom mandated that he would shut up and like it. Nothing but artificial trees since.

SWMBO and I are all-in on artificial. Much easier to deal with and no mess or maintenance. We popped for a really good one that we figure will likely outlast us.

Brad

[WLJ]

I use a real Christmas tree, just like Jesus did.

Do Jews put up Christmas trees?

[WLJ]

And did it have Mini Me under it?

[Boomhauer]

Real for me, artificial for my very OCD neat-nik wife.

We cut a fresh cedar a week before Christmas off our property every year for our tree when I was growing up. Our first tree for my first Christmas was 23 ft high, most years it was around 18ft took a whole evening to decorate

[Ben]

Real for me, artificial for my very OCD neat-nik wife.

We cut a fresh cedar a week before Christmas off our property every year for our tree when I was growing up. Our first tree for my first Christmas was 23 ft high, most years it was around 18ft took a whole evening to decorate

Holy crap! Those must have been fun to get through the front door! 

[MillCreek]

With all the kids gone, a few years back, the wife bought a triptych of three 2-3 feet tall artificial trees that sit on a tabletop.  They came pre-wired with white LEDs. Much to my chagrin, they did not have a model with colored lights.

[AJ Dual]

On a related side note: I'm amazed how many incandescent pre-lit trees are still being sold. Did they make 20 billion of the things and they still haven't clear out the warehouses? I would think 99.9% would be LED by now but it seems like 80-90% of the pre-lit trees at Wallmart are still incandescent

I wondered about that too. We upgraded our tree at Walmart last year and was surprised to see there were no LED ones in our price range.

I have to wonder if they're still working through old stock too. Or the incandescent bulbs are just cheaper than LED's still, and they hit Walmart's price points that way.

We always had a real tree growing up, but running my own household, I'm not dealing with the mess, the watering etc.

[Boomhauer]

Holy crap! Those must have been fun to get through the front door! 

Dad and mom somehow squeezed it through the sliding glass door at the back of the living room/dining room lol

The fun time was when I was 12 and the tree that year contained an unexpected bat.

[MechAg94]

I pulled out a small artificial tree yesterday and wrapped a string of lights around it.  I just put it up for the lights this time of year.  Put a couple strings of icicle lights across the garage also. 

[Jim147]

We go back and forth. Last year was real this year is fake.

My wife hasn't had colored lights in a tree in about thirty years. Well this year the thirteen year old decided she wanted colored lights so they headed to the store yesterday to pick some up.

[K Frame]

I've not put up a tree in over 25 years. I'm never home for Christmas.

When I was a kid, we always had real trees. We lived in an old Victorian with high ceilings, and we always had a tree that would scrape the ceiling.

Always had C7 lights on it, as well, never those damned mini rice grain bullshit lights. I LOVE a tree that is awash in lights. Colored lights.

Then, sometime in the 1990s when Mom and Dad got older they threw in the towel and got an artificial tree. Actually looked pretty decent, but we had to use those stupid rice grain lights on it. Never liked it.

Until probably 2009 or 2010 Mom and I went to decorate the tree and... no lights. Couldn't find them anywhere. So, off to Lowes I go, only to find that they were sold out of just about everything... except dark red LED C5/6 size. So, I get 3 strings, only to find out that (on Christmas Eve) they're 60% off, so I end up with 6 or 8 strings. Throw 3 on the tree and have a brilliant idea to put 3 strings, bundled up, into the grate of the coal-burning fireplace. It actually looked like a damned fire in the fireplace (which hadn't been usable in over 30 years).

We had that every year until Mom passed away.

Here's the lights in the fireplace...



Still looks like a fire in there...

Miss that house.