Have a Christmas Tree? Real or Artificial?

[killuminati]

fake fake fake

HAHA ,
fake fake, fake fake

 

[xsedrinam]

we get the cheapest tree available on december 23rd.

that is how my family rolls.
Heck yea!

My father in law used to do the same thing when he was alive. We called the pitiful trees he'd bring home, Charlie Brown Trees...

 

[Kobushi]

I grew up with real trees. I started going fake just because it was easier to clean up, I never have to remember to water it, and it's not a fire hazard. Later I decided I can't justify killing a perfectly good tree just for month's decoration...seems silly. Now I don't have to figure out which side is the "good" side and taking the thing down takes a whole 15 minutes

 

[iBS23]

Fake. I hate the mess of a real tree and the wife is allergic to the smell.

 

[Bibulous]

.

 

[Thomas Veil]

When my wife and I got married, we'd take our sons and go cut down a real tree on a tree farm. But as my wife's allergies got worse, we had no choice but to go artificial.

I'm fine with it. It does save a tree, and the pre-lit ones are beautiful.

BTW, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was on tonight, and I always love hearing my favorite line.

Linus, looking at one real tree among dozens of aluminum ones: "Gee, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?"

 

[dubbz]

See sig.

Plastic trees for me.

I'm not really that rabid, honestly. I just get fake/plastic because its more convenient.

 

[Moof1904]

fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake. fake.


I'm allergic to real ones and my wife collects antique aluminum Christmas trees. We have 12 of them, some a couple of feet tall and some 7 or 8 feet tall, and usually put them all up every year.

 

[bousozoku]

Never had a fake and i am never going to get one. Defeats the purpose.

What's the purpose? "Christmas" trees were adopted from some pagan culture.

As far as it goes, no Chanukah bush or Christmas tree here, life or otherwise. The last time I had anything I had a fake, white tree with gold ornaments.

 

[CorvusCamenarum]

Trees are a renewable resource, so the little woman and I had no problem going out and acquiring a 7 1/2 foor fit of some kind. Just makes the house smell so good and you can't duplicate that with hippie-friendly ozone-killing tree-smell-in-a-can or whatever they sell at the store. Now if only we could get the cat to stop attacking the tree, or more properly, the ornaments thereon. Fortunately the nicer ones are toward the top.

For me, going to get a real tree has always been part of the tradition and the fun of it all. There was a tree farm not too far from where I grew up, one of those lovely cut-your-own and charge-by-the-foot places, but some idiot developer turned it into a McSubdivision.

 

[Applespider]

Alarmingly, the 'hottest' Christmas tree this year in the UK is the black prelit one shown here. It guess it might look nice strung with black and white iPods.

I don't have a real tree since I head home to my family just before Christmas and head back after New Year. I have a little gold 'twig' one just to store the parcels under until I pack.

 

[jdechko]

Ours is fake. We got it last year on the day after christmas at wal-mart. It was $7 on sale . It doesn't look the greatest, but we like it. I consider ourselves lucky enough to have a tree considering that we just got married in Sept. and aren't loose on cash at this point.

 

[jdechko]

What's the purpose? "Christmas" trees were adopted from some pagan culture.

I was looking into that on Wikipedia because I had heard similar thoughts (specifically to Baal worship), but Wiki does not confirm that. But it did have this interesting note:

For students, to Christmas tree a test (specifically a computer-graded multiple choice test) is to fill in the answer sheet randomly, or in such a way as to form a design. Reasons for Christmas treeing a test include boredom, rebellion, and desperation (for students who are not prepared for the test). The name (an example of "verbing") comes from one popular pattern, which resembles a Christmas tree.

Been there, done that (finished in 15 min after getting there 30 min late), passed the class (but the in-class final was only worth 30% of the final, or about 10% of the overall grade).

 

[CompUser]

We always get real trees. We haven't bought ours yet though, we go out to an xmas tree farm about 15 min away.

We have 12ft ceilings in my living room, 9ft ceilings on the first floor, and 17ft ceilings in our family room, so we can get pretty tall trees.

Picking out an xmas tree is always a big to do in my family. My sister always picks out the one we get and my mom is always in a bad mood because she's cold.

Last year we were walking along looking for a tree, and we saw this guy on his knees and his eyes were shut as if he was praying or meditating. He had long white hair and looked to be in his mid 60s. His wife ran over to my dad and asked him to help get her husband back to their car. My dad said the guy smelled like beer. It was really odd, seeing this guy kneeing down in the woods.

 

[bousozoku]

Alarmingly, the 'hottest' Christmas tree this year in the UK is the black prelit one shown here. It guess it might look nice strung with black and white iPods.

I don't have a real tree since I head home to my family just before Christmas and head back after New Year. I have a little gold 'twig' one just to store the parcels under until I pack.

A special edition with black light bulbs might sell even better. It would certainly be more interesting.

 

[~Shard~]

A special edition with black light bulbs might sell even better. It would certainly be more interesting.

Indeed - not very traditional - but interesting... Ah, who am I kidding, I'm probably going to pick up one of those funky fiber optic ones myself...

 

[Lau]

Ours is a £2.99 3' one from Woolworths , as we, like Applespider, head home for the real deal. My parents always used to have a smallish fake one, but have recently been getting real ones. Obviously feeling flush in their old age!

One of my best friends has one she keeps in a pot on her front step throughout the year, then brings it in for Christmas, which I like the idea of. I saw a little bay tree in a pot clipped into the shape of a Christmas tree which I thought would be nice, in that not only can you use it year after year, but you can cook with it too. This I like. But it was £30, and it was tiny. Bleh. I'd probably eat all the leaves throughout the year anyway...

 

[Lacero]

Our Holiday trees are real. Never used fake ones before. Kind of ruins the holidays at our house. Plus, with real holiday trees, the smell of pine is a big bonus. And because we know it's real, we can feel it's lifeforce surrounding us. It permeates every room of our house. It complements and gives us life. like mitochlorians.

Here's to the Crazy Ones ​

 

[szark]

Fake, 9' fiber optic tree for me. I love the fact that during the day, when it isn't turned on, it looks like the tree doesn't have any lights on it.

 

[FoxyKaye]

I've had fake trees my whole life - Always thought they were kind of fun to set up, even when I was really little. As I got older, I just couldn't reconcile killing a tree for the holidays - it seemed irrational.

Three years ago, my partner really, really, really wanted a real tree, so we got one. I seriously felt terrible looking at it every day - it seemed pointless, since it was dead or dying while everything else was supposed to be happy and it was all strung with lights and such. It felt like decorating a corpse.

Yeah, it's a downer I know, but OTOH I'm not as upset with other people having real trees for the holidays.

For the past couple years we've gotten live trees and then planted them after the holidays - that was a lot of fun.

This year we've got a tiny silver fake tree - I decorated it with bright lights and glass ornaments. It could be used as an airplane landing light, but I think it's neat. I actually kinda like fake trees. Plus, buying a tree for the holidays gets expensive...

 

[jarred]

Fake

its stupid not to have fake. its enough work as it is, the thought of having to go out and get one is too much. I rather just stick a fake one in the garage. who cares if it doesnt smell, just get some pine car fresheners

 

[Lacero]

As I got older, I just couldn't reconcile killing a tree for the holidays - it seemed irrational.

Well, we do use tree products for houses when we could just use concrete and mud, and we use tree products for wiping our asses, when a jet of water is better sanitation-wise.

I think using fake plastic trees is irrational because plastic adds to the growing problem of non-degradeable waste. Trees, at least, are bio-degradeable and can be composted into new top soil.

"Killing" trees is a bit of a stretch.

Here's to the Crazy Ones ​

 

[FoxyKaye]

Ours is fake. We got it last year on the day after christmas at wal-mart. It was $7 on sale . It doesn't look the greatest, but we like it. I consider ourselves lucky enough to have a tree considering that we just got married in Sept. and aren't loose on cash at this point.

Oh that's a neat idea - I'll have to keep an eye out at Sears and the other big stores on the 26th for deeply discounted fake trees. It would be great to bag an 8' tree for like $20.

...my wife collects antique aluminum Christmas trees. We have 12 of them, some a couple of feet tall and some 7 or 8 feet tall, and usually put them all up every year.

That's really neat - some of the ones I've seen in good condition can fetch over $500. My partner and I are thinking about getting a large fake silver tree, but obviously it wouldn't be aluminum anymore.

Well, we do use tree products for houses when we could just use concrete and mud, and we use tree products for wiping our asses, when a jet of water is better sanitation-wise.

I think using fake plastic trees is irrational because plastic adds to the growing problem of non-degradeable waste. Trees, at least, are bio-degradeable and can be composted into new top soil.

"Killing" trees is a bit of a stretch.

All true - it's one of those irrational things, I just feel weird about it because the holidays are so in your face. I joke with my vegetarian friends that, "no-one hears the carrots scream" when they're cut... I wish we did use more concrete and mud for houses and bidets instead of toilet paper more often. When we get our house we're going to get a bidet.

 

[xsedrinam]

I think using fake plastic trees is irrational because plastic adds to the growing problem of non-degradeable waste. Trees, at least, are bio-degradeable and can be composted into new top soils.
"Killing" trees is a bit of a stretch.

And singing "Oh, gefälschter Baum" wouldn't quite fit.

 

[Lau]

"Killing" trees is a bit of a stretch.

Yeah, someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but don't they grow Christmas trees as a kind of 'crop', and 'harvest' them at Christmas? I don't think they just hack down whole forests, they're grown especially for Christmas.