When I was little, we were old school with an aluminum tree. We also put lights in it even though you’re not supposed to for obvious reasons. Lucky that we never burned the house down. (Although we rigorously checked all light strands for burned out bulbs and frays every year.)
Now we have an LED pre-lit at home, and we donated our old one to my school learning lab. (I’m actually floofing the branches out on it as we speak.) So one way or another, I’ve always been team fake. I bet real trees smell awesome, but imo it’s too much work to maintain and then clean up needles after (and keep the doggos from cleaning up the needles).
ignoring the 24in fake white tree that stays up in the basement, we have a fake main tree. got it when we were expecting kid #1. that kid will be 25 in March!
i suspect assembly is next weekend for us. let the bickering begin!
We always use a real tree, mostly because we always did when I was young. For years we’d take the kids out to a tree farm and chop one down. Now the kids are older, there’s no interest in that so we just get one at the local store. I still prefer a real tree, so we’ll keep with that.
Bonus points, after christmas we put the tree in the backyard. some years in the spring the kids take it out to a buddy’s farm and set it on fire. Dried up, they go up like a rocket.
Fake trees last indefinitely. We used the same one for about 20 years before the plastic base cracked
We bought a new one with a metal base. I think we can get another 20 years out of it
I understand the allure of a real tree though. Especially for families who have a tradition of choosing their own tree, cutting it down, and dragging it back to their car
For us it is more about all the ornaments we have collected over the years, putting them on the tree every year, and recollecting where/when we obtained said ornaments
Same, a lot of ours were either gifts from someone or ornaments we bought on vacation. My current favorite is the little Fidel Castro plush ornament my wife found in Havana.
When the kids were young we went to the tree farm and cut one down. Strapped it to the top of the minivan and headed home in some very blustery weather.
Halfway home, off comes the tree and starts blowing away. I pull the car over, head out and I’m chasing the tree down the road while I’ve got two kids crying in the car because we lost the christmas tree lol.
Eventually caught the tree, calmed the kids down.
Wow, y’all are high-tech, buying trees with integrated lights.
My decision was not based on expected environmental impact. My building forbids real trees because fire safety, so I have an artficial one. I’d prefer that anyway, because I spent enough years earlier in life sweeping up needles and washing sap off my hands. The only big drawbacks of my artificial tree are when a single branch breaks, and finding a place to stash it for the rest of the year.
We never did chop down our own tree, we bought them from those seasonal pop-up lots where they’re ready-cut and tied up. My parents have switched to artificial now, too.
Lucky that we never burned the house down. (Although we rigorously checked all light strands for burned out bulbs and frays every year.)