Christmas Trees - fake or real?

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

When it comes to Christmas trees, which do you prefer, fake plastic trees, and no, I'm not talking about the old Radiohead song, but synthetic trees, or do you prefer a real tree?

My mother and most of my older relatives always had a real tree when they were growing up, but when I was a kid we only ever had fake trees, as my mother said they were just easier to set up and were more cost effective than a real tree, and she still uses a fake tree to this day, and I've continued using fake trees since I started my family. I guess they were just a part of my generation, because my wife only had fake trees when she was growing up as well.

The reason I brought up this topic is because our kids said that they want a real tree this year, and while we can easily get a real tree, we honestly don't know the first thing about how to maintain one properly, or want to have to deal with the extra cleanup after the holidays, so we haven't decided if we will get a real tree for them yet.

[Murfreesboro]

Oh, I was adamant for many years that I would have only a real tree. However, I've had a fake one now for decades.

When we were newlyweds living in Killeen, TX, the real trees went on sale before Thanksgiving, but my husband refused to buy one. He has a thing about not celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving. I was unhappy but accepted his dictate. Well, when we went out to buy a real tree, there were literally none left. We had to go to Sears for a fake tree. I was livid and resentful. But we kept that tree for years, and even though we sometimes did have real trees, there were also some years when we were so broke that we'd have had no tree at all if we hadn't had the fake one.

Up in VA, in the Shenandoah Valley where our boys were born, we attended a church in which one family owned a Christmas tree farm. Their annual gift to the church members was to give each family a tree. So during those years we had real trees, and I was happy. But when we moved to TN we had our fake tree up again. I felt sad about it, like I wasn"t doing our boys right. But that Christmas season, around Dec 28, our older son saw a neighbor's tree in the gutter. He asked if we were going to throw our tree out, and I said no, because ours was artificial. He said, "Good."

My son's reaction helped me see a different side to artificial trees. The next year I bought a higher quality fake one, and I used it happily for a number of years, before a tree in our backyard fell on a storage shed during a storm and destroyed the items inside, including the tree. Since then I've used a much smaller fake tree that my in-laws stored at the condo we inherited. I don't really like it because it's small and spindly and not my kind of tree at all, but no one else seems to mind it, and it's better than nothing. One advantage to its size and artificiality is that we can leave it up, stripped of everything except its lights, until spring comes.

I guess I'd say that if I could afford it, I'd have a real tree every year. But since I can't, I try to make myself content with what I can have. And truly there are advantages and disadvantages to either choice.

Caring for a real tree: it's really not that hard. You just have to keep them watered. You might have to saw a little off the bottom of the trunk to make sure it can absorb the water (the sap has a way of sealing it off after it's been cut for a while). You used to be able to buy tree.stands for real trees everywhere, but they might be harder to come by now. They came with screws you'd screw into the trunk to make it stand upright. I guess anyone selling a real tree could tell you where to get a stand for it. Making them stand straight is easier with two oeople, one to watch from across the room, and one to turn the screws.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Thanks for the tips and information, Murf!

I was talking to my wife again last night, and we decided that we're going to get a real tree for the kids. I was actually wondering how the tree would remain vertical, like I said, I have no experience with real trees, but I did assume that it would require a base to hold it up, the tree stands that you mentioned should be easy enough to find online.

I know that when Millie and her siblings were kids, they would go out into the forest with their father and just chop down a tree. Of course, now we can go to a tree farm, or tree lot to get one, though they are outside the city. I wish the kids had told us that they wanted a real tree earlier, as we won't be able to go until next weekend, and my wife doesn't usually wait that long to decorate the tree. Thankfully, she's already put up the other decorations around the house, and we have already decorated the restaurant, bakery, and cafe, thanks to our helper elves.

Also, I just came across this article that shows photos of how people have been decorating for the holidays over the last hundred years. There are some classic photos in there.

https://shopping.yahoo.com/home-garden/ ... 02497.html

[Murfreesboro]

My mother told me that her family used to go to the woods to get a tree. They also decorated it with candles when she was a child. She said that when you have a candlelit tree, it gets lit only once. But she said there was nothing quite so magical as a tree lit with candles.

[Murfreesboro]

Re your real tree: you are going to LOVE the way it smells. That's what I miss most about a real tree. When I had my one preferred fake tree, I used to use an evergreen scented Glade plug-in behind it to create the illusion that the tree had a scent.

Our Kroger is selling table top trees, real ones, for $30 right now. I am tempted to buy one just for the aroma. But it bugs me to pay that much for a tiny tree. I used to get full-size ones for $25 when I was a grad student.

Oh, another thing about real trees: don't leave them unattended when the lights are burning. It might not be as big a deal with LED lights, but anything that burns hot can be a fire hazard. Check the water every day and make sure the needles are still soft, not too dry. If you do these things, it should be OK to leave it up until early January.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I have only ever seen a candlelit tree once in my life when I was a kid, and it was beautiful. I remember it was at a Christmas pageant at city hall, our class was there to sing for the event. The only other place that I've seen candlelit trees is in movies.

I know that they make fake trees that come with artificial pine scent. A friend of ours has one and she said the scent lasts for a few years. We have been using the same tree since we got married, and it's still good so we probably won't replace it until we have to. Of course, having a real tree might become a new tradition for us after this year, it depends on how well it goes.

Most lights that are used for decorating these days are designed to generate less heat, and save energy, so it should be fine. I do remember the large bulbs that we used when we were young, and they were extremely hot, now you find then at yard sales everywhere but they just sit there. Though I do know some older people that still use them.