Christmas/Holiday Trees, Real or Artificial. What's your pleasure? Environmental Impact? Opinon? Ideas?

Stifler's - posted on 12/04/2010

We have always had a fake one.

Amie - posted on 12/03/2010

http://www.christmastrees.on.ca/consumer...

We use real Christmas trees.

Danielle - posted on 12/03/2010

I believe that a real tree is better than a fake tree for the environment because not only can you use them to make hiding spots for the fish, many (if they die or are donated) are chopped up for shavings, and on top of this trees make Oxygen-what could be better than clean air??
That being said, we are waiting until our kids are older before we buy a real tree-like 4/5 or 5/6- so that we are SURE that they know not to eat the needles lol. We are curently using a fake tree and since the scents that you can hang smell nothing like a REAL tree I refuse to buy them. We hope to build a house in the next 3-4 years, and when we do I plan on having a real tree as the main tree and use the fake one in another room :-)

Barb - posted on 12/02/2010

Oh man what a fantastic idea!! I wish i lived near that area i would definitely use that service.

Johnny - posted on 12/02/2010

I'm a real tree girl. When I was single and living in small apartments, I had a fake tree. But now, it's definitely a real one. It doesn't really feel like an at home Christmas to me with a fake one. More like Christmas at the mall. I was actually looking into this service to cut my environmental impact:

http://www.thedailyplanet.com/index.php?...

Barb - posted on 12/02/2010

Hahahaha Toni, yes, that's a little different meaning to that whole post.

When jr was little i used to call him "cheeky monkey" He was always a little climber. When he was 18 months he met me at the door to his room. He had climbed out of his crib and we decided it was time to move into a big boy bed.

LaCi - posted on 12/02/2010

My cat (doesn't live with me now) Used to try to climb the christmas tree. I also used to fall asleep in the living room a lot. My cat is extremely fat, so this resulted in the christmas tree falling on the snoozing girl frequently.

Toni - posted on 12/02/2010

Barb, Oh you have really made me laugh...I forget sometimes that people don't know that I refer to my son as my little monkey...he climbs everything... :-D

Every cat I have ever owned has climbed and slept in my Christmas tree.

Candi - posted on 12/01/2010

we have a fake tree. We have had a few real ones. The artificial is much easier to clean around and put up and take down. We only use red bows and white lights on our tree anyway and it looks so pretty on the "perfectly shaped" tree. lol. We bought this tree in 2004. We had just moved and went to Kmart just to browse and saw this 7 1/2 ft tree that was on sale for $65. It was normally over $300. Its beautiful and we can use it year after year. We only keep it up for 10 days, so it will last until the kids leave home, then we probably won't even do a tree anymore. Thats not the meaning of Christmas, but the kids enjoy it

Amber - posted on 12/01/2010

We have an artificial tree. Real trees are more of a fire hazard, which has always been a fear of mine. Our artificial tree is flame retardant.
Also, my son and his dad have a ton of allergies; so, bringing a real tree into the house would cause a lot of sneezing and puffy eyes.

Nikkole - posted on 12/01/2010

lol yea her eyes ok it was kinda funny tho she had to wear a patch on her eye for a week and my son thought she was a pirate! Yea i kill plants ALL the time unless there outside! Thats good to know yea my son wants some fish ill have to look at some of those :)

Barb - posted on 12/01/2010

wow Nikkole, hope your mom's eye is ok for picking out presents this year :) That is interesting to know about fungus on the trees.

We kill em too. We have a rule in this house, if it can't whine or cry that it needs food and water, it's going to die. It's amazing our fish have lived this long. If your kids want fish, i suggest black fin tetras. you can't kill those little suckers.

Nikkole - posted on 12/01/2010

i like fake no needles everywhere no watering lol i would forget and kill it and plus if u have a fake one you dont have to spend money every year on a tree! An last year my mom got her eye poked by the fake tree while putting it up and th ER said if it was real it would have been worse because of the fungus that grows on real trees

Rosie - posted on 12/01/2010

we have an artificial tree. growing up we had real ones for most of my life, i can't remember when we got a fake one, but i think it was when i was in high school. no messy pine needles, no watering, much better. plus i'm a cheapskate and can't bear to spend money on a new tree every year, lol!

Jo - posted on 12/01/2010

I always had a fresh tree cut from the bush growing up. It was always a family adventure for us to go and pick it out, watch Dad trudge through the 10 foot snowbanks to cut it down and drag it back to the truck then have it set by the fire for an hour to melt the snow before dad would bring it upstairs and set it up for all of us to decorate along with the rest of the house!



The past 3 years I've had an artificial tree though. I really want to get a real tree but my bf doesn't want to deal with it after Christmas. I'm hoping I'll be able to convince him for next year!



I can't really say too much about the enviromental impact of Christmas tree's... my dad's a logger. Even if every family cuts down 1 tree every year at Christmas, my dad has been cutting down and replanting forrests for about 45 years.

Barb - posted on 12/01/2010

Joy, what do you mean this will be your (and your son's) first white Christmas?

LaCi - posted on 12/01/2010

I HATE the smell of evergreens. They always smell like cat piss to me.

I'm not putting up a tree at all this year. Next year I will buy a new artificial tree- mine was my grandmothers, given to my mom, then given to me so it's about had it lol.

As for environmental impact, I would think that the impact is worse for fake trees.

My hatred for the smell of pine is the only factor in my choice, oh, and I don't want to deal with falling pine needles.

Joy - posted on 12/01/2010

Well, here's my take on people that buy real trees. It's not like the sellers of the trees go out into forrests and cut down acres and acres of trees in the wild. Christmas type trees (firs) are grown on farms and rotated out, created and grown specifically to sell. I don't have a problem with that. I mean, for every tree they cut down, they probably replace it with about 10 more. I don't know the exact statistics or exactly how that type of business is run, but it only makes sense that they have to keep refreshing their stock, so they have to keep constantly planting more trees and as long as they aren't infringing on forrests then I see no problem with it.

All that being said, I've never had a real tree in my life. I wanted one this year because it's going to be my first (and my son's first) white Christmas but my husband says they are a pain so we broke out the artificial again. I love the smell too and I'm determined that we'll have a real one eventually :)

Caitlin - posted on 12/01/2010

We always get a fresh cut one - last year we went to the farm and they took us out to the field in a horsedrawn sleigh and let us choose and cut down our own. They also explained how if you cut it a certain way, the tree actually regrows from the existing stump, which is really cool I thought. I'll do that again this year if I can, it's a great experience and it's so cute to see the kids running around choosing their own trees.

I also remember reading somewhere that the real one have less impact because they don't get thrown out every 5-10 years and end up in landfills, the real ones here are picked up and turned into mulch that we can buy cheaply for our gardens, or is used for animal bedding.

Barb - posted on 12/01/2010

Aww Toni, my cats have done the same thing, although, i'm betting your monkey will be more efficient at it.

Sherri - posted on 12/01/2010

We will have a real tree. The smell, the memories there is just what works for our family. Also for every tree they cut down they replant another so there is no real impact on the environment as trees are now cut from tree farms.

Toni - posted on 12/01/2010

We have a fake tree because we have never have time to go and fetch a real tree, this year because I have the monkey that I just know is gonna climb and hang and de-decorate my tree we are sticking to the fake tree, next year we may get a real one. I have always wanted a real one we just never seem to get one...

Jenny - posted on 11/30/2010

I get a real tree from the bush. They are generally small Charlie Brown trees that are not likely to flourish anyways. I'm ok with that. We have been discussing buying a potted tree and putting it outside till the next year though. We'll plant it somewhere permanent if it gets too large. Or maybe you could kinda bonsai it?

Good Day! - posted on 11/30/2010

Well, being that the trees are re-grown the next year, I don't think the environmental impact is that great. Now if everyone was going out into the wild forests and cutting trees that no one was going to re-grow, then yes that would be bad. We get a real tree from a farm every year.

Lacye - posted on 11/30/2010

We have a fake tree mostly because the smell of real Fir and the other Christmas trees give me horrible headaches! But I don't think I would get a real tree if I could. I like my little fake tree! lol. I don't think there is much of an environmental impact as most people think. I have a cousin who owns a logging company and when ever they cut down a tree, they clear out the stumps and plant new ones. I think Christmas tree farmers do the same thing.