Real, Artificial or No Christmas Tree?

[TOOLMAN]

Festivus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the rest of us, who rather forget the whole thing ...

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[imoldernu]

Our tree....

 

[martyp]

We get a small real tree each year about a week before Christmas. It comes down on New Years day. It you keep it watered it is fine for 3 weeks. Christmas trees are a renewable resource grown on tree farms. We recycle the tree when we are done with it.

We don't celebrate a religious Christmas but I like the idea of having a lighted living tree in the house during the darkest days of the year. Call it a solstice celebration if you will.

 

[Sarah in SC]

When we lived in a more urban place, we ha a tree every year because our big party was New Year's Eve. Since we moved to the country 10 years ago, we haven't ever taken down any of the decorations from the attic or considered getting a tree. Too much trouble and no one would see it anyway. Meh, Christmas.

My sis is making a big deal out of our helping decorate theirs when we go see them next week; she thinks we are somehow missing out on the holiday spirit. I guess. I also hate Christmas music.

 

[Nodak]

I used to live near several Christmas tree farms. In late September they would spray the trees that were going to be harvested with some sort of a green waxy coating. I assume to keep them from drying out. The trees were cut in late October or early November depending on what the local weather was doing. All trees were cut before we had snow. Then they were trucked away. I don't know how long the spray coating would preserve them but any tree sold was at least a month to 6 weeks after harvest before it was purchased.

 

[steelyman]

I also hate Christmas music.

I don't know. Most sucks, but I am favorable to "Sleigh Ride" and "Happy Holidays" from "Holiday Inn".

 

[MRG]

I used to live near several Christmas tree farms. In late September they would spray the trees that were going to be harvested with some sort of a green waxy coating. I assume to keep them from drying out. The trees were cut in late October or early November depending on what the local weather was doing. All trees were cut before we had snow. Then they were trucked away. I don't know how long the spray coating would preserve them but any tree sold was at least a month to 6 weeks after harvest before it was purchased.

It doesn't preserve them in any way. Its just what you said, waxy, green coating. Like shiny green shoe polish.
When the tree is cut and sits it's dead. Things like polish and water just make it look better, longer. I'm not a tree hugger, but its good to know how it works.

MRG

 

[Sarah in SC]

I don't know. Most sucks, but I am favorable to "Sleigh Ride" and "Happy Holidays" from "Holiday Inn".

Wait, I lied. There is one song I like. HFWR feel free to sing along.

http://youtu.be/P37xPiRz1sg

 

[Meadbh]

Our tree....

That's beautiful. The photos you have posted of your home have a different decor. Is this tree in a public area?

 

[Moemg]

We will have a real Christmas tree but each year it gets smaller . My decorations have also shrunk but we still do it all including a large Christmas Eve party .

 

[yakers]

Home 'Grown"

DW & I put this together. It looks great and the lights run up & down in various patterns that are somewhat hypnotic.

We have debates every year between a real, artificial (but real looking, just not real smelling) tree, my electric palm tree and now this one we made.

We have a lot of cactus plants so most folks thought we had tall, thin cacti (we put lights on an outside cactus)but these are actually felt wrapped small post/large stakes.

 

[Bestwifeever]

That's beautiful. The photos you have posted of your home have a different decor. Is this tree in a public area?

I believe he is decorating this year in the style of the Oval Office in the White House, complete with velvet ropes.

 

[Arifriekinel]

This is my first Christmas in a house with just me and my boyfriend. We've learned that neither of us much cares for the idea of it. His parents have moved up north and my family doesn't do much. Lights and trees seem too tedious for two people who don't care.

So it looks like we'll be doing nothing, nothing, Doctor Who Christmas Special, and more nothing.

 

[Meadbh]

This is my first Christmas in a house with just me and my boyfriend. We've learned that neither of us much cares for the idea of it. His parents have moved up north and my family doesn't do much. Lights and trees seem too tedious for two people who don't care. So it looks like we'll be doing nothing, nothing, Doctor Who Christmas Special, and more nothing.

That's my kind of Christmas!

 

[Wishing]

My parents decided to go artificial when I was old enough to realize that Santa was a myth. DH and I are Christmas fanatics and we have always had real trees. Started cutting them ourselves when we lived in Missouri, Michigan and Connecticut. South Georgia doesn't raise premium Christmas trees - I never much cared for cedar Christmas trees. Now I order a Frazier fir from our local high school baseball team (fundraiser). One of the team parents travels to North Carolina and picks up freshly cut trees. I get the tree into water immediately, and it lasts for a month without dropping needles. That's probably the only decorating I will do this year. We used to put out a herd of lighted deer, moose, bears, etc. in the yard.

 

[REWahoo]

My parents decided to go artificial when I was old enough to realize that Santa was a myth.

What?!?!

Nooooooo!!!!!

 

[haha]

I would like to have some Christmas decorations to make my end of my building look nice, but I am really too lazy. Instead I go downtown, and go to a neighborhood along Lake W that is beautifully decorated and have some drinks.

I did my Christmas duty when I was a young father- we'd go down into a swamp and cut the least scraggly looking Doug Fir or Cedar we could find and drag it home.

One winter my wife had made some homemade egg nog and rum drink she called Ronpopo. It was very misleading. When we were up from tree dragging, my teenage son and I both got smashed and passed out on the rug in front of the Fireplace. She was always in a great mood around Christmas so she just let us sleep it off.

Later, we referred to it as the "Ronpopo Affair".

 

[Live And Learn]

I had a beautiful wonderfuly "charlie brown-ish" artificial tree that I bought back in 1988 when we bought our first house. It was 6 ft tall and about 4 ft in diameter. I LOVED that tree - because it was so sparse all my ornaments hung so nicely. Alas, I now do not have enough room for it. All our other homes could fit the tree, but this house has narrow rooms (12') and it just won't work.

I had a dilemma to deal with as I have over 100 ornaments. No balls for me - I have "things" that go on the tree. A bunch of homemade ornaments (mostly counted cross stitch and beaded types that I made), a bunch that my mom made (some of which used grandma's fabric from her sewing kit), things brought back from holiday's (I have a wooden Maine lobster, santa on a hammock that says "Key West") and other things to commemorate special events (this years ornament is a tiny lighted gingerbread house to commemorate our "new to us" home). Where was I going to put all these ornaments !

Solution - two artificial "skinny trees". They are 6 ft tall but only 24" in diameter. I have one in the "living room" (where the TV is) and one in the "family room" (where I have a couple of bookshelves filled with books).

For me it wouldn't be Christmas without seeing my "old friends" (my ornaments). Each one tells a story. I need my Christmas trees.

 

[Al in Ohio]

Some of the artificial trees these days are quite realistic, without the fire hazard. We are on our third fake tree, and they just get better looking. The old ones go on freecycle.org

Ditto here. We are on our third artificial tree and this one is hard to detect as not being real unless you are standing right in front of it.

I buy those Sladkin "wall flowers" from Bath and Body Works in Balsam scent and plug it in to an outlet right behind the tree. The whole room smells like real tree for 4-5 weeks.

I 'd say a high quality fake tree purchased on sale around Jan 15 of the year before you first use it will cost $100-$150 and last a good 10 years or longer at only an average of $10-$15 per year. I love lowering my average cost of any recurring expense!

 

[Walt34]

This is our new artificial tree. Like many, we're done with the hassle of big trees real or fake. DW found this 18" one for ~$12, fits fine on a table in the living room.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

This is our new artificial tree. Like many, we're done with the hassle of big trees real or fake. DW found this 18" one for ~$12, fits fine on a table in the living room.

That looks great. I think I will get something similar. I have a set of LED fake candles I am going to use on the fireplace mantle, too. The candles flicker and look real unless you are right next to them.

 

[panacea]

Two artificial trees... one in the front window (a small room) and one in the basement where Santa leaves gifts for the kids (if they've been good).

 

[calmloki]

Up in Oregon it was always a real tree. Down here it's a bit of green plastic. Saw a video of a copter jockey loading Christmas trees near Corvallis Oregon, something I've seen in person - pretty amazing skills:

Oregon Christmas Tree Harvest With Helicopter. Amazing Pilot! - YouTube

Imoldernyou - your Christmas leg - did it come in a crate marked in Italian "fra'gile?

 

[BigNick]

We've always had a real tree, but last year the four of us (me, DW, two kids 22/24) decided that spending Christmas at home was not much fun any more. So we're going on a Caribbean cruise - we'll be in St Thomas (US Virgin Islands) on December 25. We will forego the tree, to pay for one of the shore excursions.

 

[Marita40]

haha, rompopo is a staple at my house at Christmas. It is misleading Just don't drive after drinking.