Real or Artificial Survey....

When we were kids my parents always had an artificial tree and a fake cardboard fireplace. I never did like it even though we did have alot of cool decorations!
The worst was my grandfathers, he always had a fake silver christmas tree!! Yes it was as ugly as it sounds!!!
When I married I swore I would never have a fake tree (some of them do look very nice when decorated) and I never have!!!!
We always go to a grower and get a balled tree (always too big) so we can plant it after x-mas.
So tell me are you an Real or Artifical tree lover????????
sue

I love a real tree..for many years we would go and cut a fresh one at the tree farm..it would take ages to decide which one "talked to me"
Now that I am older I have to admit I have a fake one..that is nice..but not like a real one..
And I have a secret..for the last several years I have just left it standing in the rec room..decorated! I don't use that room much during the year..only at Christmas when all the family gathers here..so I leave a lot of the decorations up..the fireplace is still decorated too. I call it the Christmas room. :)
I really like your idea of getting a real one to plant..you could create a nice little forest over the years..and put little signs on them..2000..2001..and so on...

This message was edited Friday, Nov 23rd 7:48 AM

We always had a real tree when the kids were home. Now our little(artificial) tree stays decorated and stored' I like to decorate quickly,get it done and move on to other things' Fake or real they're all great'

Our mother always would wait(not much $)and we'd get the poorest,dryest,sadest one left on the lot,lol' Didn't matter though to us. It was the prettiest of all with popcorn strands and our homemade ornaments'

After Christmas we'd take it to the lake and pitch it in for the fish to enjoy,lol' And of course,we always carried our poles/tackle everywhere and just had to do some fishin' too,lol' Thanks for the memories' Sis'

Growing up as a kid we always went and cut our own tree for christmas up near our mountain cabin.

I moved to Washington state for two years with my job, and returned home one Christmas at my parents place and we found out I had become allergic to them.

I have never been able to have one in my home since.

So now I am a fake tree man.

I do miss going and getting the tree as in the old days,we had so much fun on those outings.

Thanks for the memories
Mike

I could never resigne myself to contribute to the death of a tree,atleast not on pourpose.My Grandmother had one of those fake silver ones,she had it on a little wheeled cart and she kept it in a closet ,all decorated,pulled it out at Christmas,pushed it back in after New Years,never liked it.But my Mom had a fake one that she paid big bucks for ,back in the 60's.It was beautiful and unless you looked very hard you couldn't tell it was fake.I inherited it and used it up till last year .The parts just didn't fit together well anymore.I'm cutting a large circle of plywood,and I'm making a large wreath out of it.I guess my Mom got her moneys worth out of that one.I bought a new fake one .I look at it this way,I put sooooo many ornaments and tinsle,garland,etc... you cant see the tree anyhow.I tried for a few years to get the balled and burlaped ones,had to keep it outside till the last minite,and get it back out real quick.Then it always died anyhow.After 4 dead ones in a row,I said fake for me,If I'm going to spend money on a live tree its going straight in the yard.Although I've also decorated my Norfork Island Pine,and my ficus.I admit ,a live one seems so nice ,but not for me,plus no needles on the floor,no climbing under it to water it and panicking when I forget.

Used to use live Christmas trees then found out our DD was allergic to the live ones,so went to artifical. Even in church, we had to sit towards the back. If we sat too close she would start sniffling,sneezing and coughing and get all stopped up and had a hard time breathing.
We have a 7 1/2 foot,very filled artifical tree,but think will need to get a small one,as it's just too big where we are living now.

We have an artifical one now too. But I have so many good memories of when we would go cut our own tree.But haven't had a real one since my son was a baby.

Chrestedchik, I guess those silver one's were the big thing in our grandparent's day! Just like everything else (bellbottoms and moodrings) we will probably see them in the store's soon!!!
sue

If I ever get to move to where I want to be-somewhere with land, I would love to get a balled and burlapped tree each year. Then we could plant the trees on the property to mark our years together. We also have an artificial. I guess it is easier (and cheaper)because we have a bunch of little ones and pets. I remember one year long ago, my father dated a woman in Minnesota. She had a great room with two story ceilings. They bought the biggest tree I had ever seen in my life and to this day I cannot imagine how they got it in. I remember seeing it and smelling it, even on the second floor. That would be awesome!

Im still getting real trees that are always to big for my home! We have to take pictures off the walls and pull real hard! Its about 10ft high by 8 or 9 ft wide and we always have to cut some back my ceilings are 9ft.
Last year my dh and I had a riot getting it-we had planned the day, the night before we got about 8inches of snow to add to the 4 we already had on the ground. We drove about 30miles, sometimes on unplowed roads to a tree farm. There was one set of tracks back to the trees(some other nut had already been there)-her plow man was busy with parking lots and more. We found several "fat" trees. You had to shake the 8inches of snow off them to see what they would look like-found him,cut him and then the trip to the truck its only about 30ft away. It only took us 20 min. or so This tree was so heavy with the wet snow on it...Dh and I could only drag it about 2ft at a time with 3 good hard pulls. We were slipping and falling and panting and laughing the whole way-it was a riot! This year Im going to find one a little closer to the path. Artificials are starting to look better the older I get! Burlap bagged would be great if it was HUGE!
Fresh for me!

We used to get the biggest tree we could find. But now we don't put one up at all unless the kids are coming. I just hang wreaths and garlands instead. But except for the old tin tinsel tree with the revolving color lamp back in the days of yuck I always went for real. By the way. those old silver foil trees were pretty tacky but they are considered as collectables now! I laughed when I saw a small one in an antique store....they wanted $350 for it!

Oh Dori, Thank you for that picture! LOL I would have lighted it, plugged it in and got electrocuted! LMBO I knew there was some reason for buying one in a box. Someday we will have real trees, but I think for now the other one will have to do.

This message was edited Friday, Nov 23rd 11:25 AM

Real forever...
Our ceilings are 12 feet high so an artificial one tall enough would be very hard to find. Also we purchace ours at John's Nursery, who only buys from growers that plant 2 for 1 apparently. It smells so nice. I like to put it up December first and leave it a few days without decorations so I can look at it's natural beauty.

WE ALWAYS HAD A REAL TREE BUT I JUST DIDN'T LIKE ALL THE NEEDLES IN THE RUG! WENT TO AN ARTIFICIAL TREE ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO. IT'S BEAUTIFUL AND PEOPLE WHO COME TO OUR HOUSE ASK IF IT'S REAL. MY DH SAYS THEY WOULD'NT KNOW ANYWAY BECAUSE I HAVE SO MANY DECORATIONS ON IT ANYWAY. BOUGHT SOME NEW ONES TODAY!!!!!!

Well Zany we had one of those revolving lights also. I prefer the artificial because of the ease of putting it up and not having to worry about drying out and catching on fire. However the real tree does add a lot to the season. We do have a real one ever so often just for old time sake.

Oh, the memories of real trees as a kid! My job was always to put 'snow' on the tree... which was whipped Ivory Snow Flakes (in hot water). It would drape like wet snow does, and dry overnight.

I'd still have a real tree if I didn't have so many houseplants taking up all the space! As it is, I have a tiny artificial one that sits with the amaryllis on top of the TV. Sigh.

I was surprised to find others who are allergic to Christmas trees. My allergy is so bad, just the tree lots setting up in the area sets it off, presumably from the things released in the air. Without ever leaving home, I can tell when they begin to set up. Many years ago, with a lot of kids and little money, all crammed into a small house, we wrapped all our packages, arranged lights in the front window so they appeared as a decorated tree from the street, and stacked our packages in a rough shape of a tree. All to accommodate me and precious daughter who shared the allergy. Kids are great, they took all of my weird ways in stride, and some of them still don't get into tree decorating. I am on my allergy meds even now because everywhere I go I encounter the trees. Have concluded it isn't the trees, because too many different kinds have seemed to trigger it, and one allergist suggested it was probably something that grows on the bark and isn't a problem until released in great quantity. The season isn't fun for me, as I never feel good, am puffy and achy and generally out of sorts, but my family realizes this and allows for it. I am so fortunate.

We may have had a real tree when I was a little girl, but I don't remember. Howie and I use an artificial tree - It's very realistic 7' tree. It takes about 4 hours to put together and shape, though...We may use our smaller 5' tree, which is in three pieces. It's not as quite as realistic, but we also don't dread putting it together and taking it back apart! I suspect I'd be allergic to a real tree in the close confines of our home, too - so artificial is our vote!

We usually have a live tree. There is just something about the smell of cedar in the house at Christmas.

We always had live trees, until 3 Christmases in a row at least 3 of us ended up with allergy induced pneumonia! When the girls were little and we lived in the trailer, we had a fishnet that I'd dyed green and hung from the ceiling. Stan made 4 plastic pipe hoops to give it shape and we hung ornaments inside it. It was a beautiful and unique tree. when we moved into the big old farm house, we got a huge artificial tree that looks so realistic, people were accusing us of having skipped church for all those years at Christmas time for no reason! I love real trees, but I'd rather have an artificial tree and get to celebrate without being sick.

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In the mansion that our county owns, I work 2 jobs. In the mornings I run the senior citizen's mealsite program until about 12:30. In the afternoons, I am the director of the historical society in the basement.
My office is the original butler's pantry. During the Festival of Trees (a fund-raiser by a charity) my office was closed up and off limits. This meant all the food for the 2 dining rooms had to be brought around my office and down a big entrance hallway, that's the long way. So last year I cleaned out my office totally and took my program to a church basement. They made a bake shop out of my office!
To make a long story short, they sell completely decorated live christmas trees for business to put in their lobby and also some individuals buy them. They run about $200. They also have smaller, very nice artificial trees for about $89, fully decorated. Much to my shock, they gave me one of the smaller trees at the end of the fund-raiser for letting them use my office. It is gorgeous! I was able to pack it up over the winter, whole, all decorated. So it should hold up awhile before I have to work on it.

I can't believe how many people are allergic to christmas trees. It must drive you guys crazy!!!!!
Sure hope you have a good supply of allegra or clariton or zyrtec!!!!!!!
sue

We did real trees for about 8 years of married life. Then I decided that the wonderful smell was not worth the mess of pine needles, the "critters" that came in with our fresh-cut trees (no sqirrels, just spiders and mites ;0), and it just didn't make financial sense to pop $40+ for a tree each year.

So we're now on the second artificial tree (first one cost $35 and lasted 7 years, but was too short for our last house.) I decorate four trees throughout the house - two large ones for the living areas, a small one in our bedroom, and one at the end of the hall where the kids' rooms are. I DO miss the smell of a fresh tree, but I console myself with some pine boughs in centerpieces and a fresh wreath for the door :)

Real then and still real now. We like the walk in the woods to find the perfect tree - don't think we'll ever go fake at this home.

Real here...love the smell in spite of the mess. We have wisteria in the yard so I make wreaths...come time to decorate the trees and bushes in the yard haul themselves up by their roots and run screaming.."Oh no..it's that lady who trims our branches to decorate!!!" LOL

Yes - I'm allergic too but dd loves a real tree so much I just suffer and double up on the allergy medicine. Sometimes, we have had some really pathetic looking free cedar trees that we cut right out of our own pasture. Up until 3 years ago, we cut them right out of our own backyard as a way of thinning come pine trees. Now we buy them from a farm. Many of the tree farms planted around here are supplemntal income for the farmers and I don't mind helping them out. Those trees, just like crops, are planted for the specific purpose of using for Christmas trees. We have high ceilings too and dd always picks out a big tree that takes some major squishing to get in the door.

Growing up we always had live trees. And every year after we decorated with six thousand ornaments, lights, garland, and icicles, we would ALWAYS say the same thing...prettiest tree we've ever had. When we got married, DH and I did the balled trees for two years in a row and they did beautiful and are still living over 30 years later. But then we went to artificial from 1971 to 1988. Christmas of 1988 we knew our middle dd would be in Australia the following Christmas (she was an exchange student) and that in 1989 oldest dd would be graduating and who knows if we would all be together at Christmas again for awhile so DH cut one of our pine trees down (we had planted over 200) and we decorated that for Christmas. From that time on, we went back and forth between live and the artificial one that we still have. This year we are putting up a small artifical one that will go to the attic decorated when Christmas season is over. As each daughter left home I would give them "their ornaments". I still have a bell ornmanet from when I was 5 years old. Now that is an OLD ornament. When the girls were little but old enough to hang ornaments, we would let them decorate the tree and all the ornaments would be on the lower branches clanging together. I will still put up the manger and my Santa Claus's but am going to a small tree this year. I burn lots of candles for Christmas fragrance :-) Thanks for allowing us to share "old" memories that bring a tear or two. vic

We used to have live trees. I love the Christmas tree smell in the house. But, we are a family of 2 adults, 5 kids, and 6 cats living in a 14x70 mobil home.

We came to the conclusion that the tree itself in a mobil home was a hazard. We spent at least half the cost of an artificial tree each year on a real one. So, we bought an artificial one about 6 years ago. This year, we decided to lookf or one of the skinny "Charlie Brown" artificial trees, but haven't found one yet. If we got one of those, we could keep all our living room furniture and we could still see the TV from the couch. LOL

To make up for the Christmas tree smell, I buy pine candles and glade pine plug-ins. It works great and the smell lasts longer than the dried up tree does, and we don't worry about our house burning down.

When we take our tree down I put it outside and "decorate" it for the birds..love watching them enjoy their Christmas. Around this area the trees are often used on the beaches to replenish the sand dunes..sorta like a snow fence.