To think natural Christmas trees are rubbish

[Grindelwaldswand]

Got our first real Christmas tree yesterday and it is useless its 6ft but has massive gaps in between the branches and it can't even hold a bauble on the tip of the branch without falling to the floor i had visions of an amazing tree that would fill the hluse with the smell of pine needles but its scentless. definitely getting a fake tree next year.

Helpful table of varieties comparing needle drop, fragrance etc

www.pickyourownchristmastree.org.uk/treevarieties.php

Op - not sure where you got your tree from, but is it worth complaining to see if they will give you a replacement or refund?

"*He watched a video during a work training and the tree went up like so much so-called kindling. He was horrified."
Oh. My. God. My step-dad decided he was going to burn our tree after Christmas one year. This was a tree that had been in water the entire two weeks it had been indoors, and looked fresh as the day we'd bought it...
There was a big whoosh a giant WHOMP! and a fireball. Then there was no tree, just a blackened trunk with bits of branches sticking out. Literally that fast. It was terrifying.

Having said that, although I haven't had a tree in the past few years (no room for one, and we live with a demoncat) but I always get a real tree. I grew up almost literally surrounded by Christmas tree farms, and a fake one would just feel too wrong.

I bought a mink tree this year. It's lovely. I have had real trees and I do love them but this one caught my eye.

It's not very bushy which is taking some getting used to but it is very lovely.

Plastic trees make me sad

We've always bought real trees but this Summer purchased a Monsera (Cheese plant) which we'll decorate with lights and boubles. An interesting look and nothing to throw away in the New Year, win win

Christmas trees are planted as a crop, so I'm not sure where this idea comes from that they are environmentally unfriendly. They wouldn't be planted otherwise.
They are often planted on steep hillsides on area that is unsuitable for crops or grazing, so it's not land that is being used anyway.
While they grow they absorb carbon dioxide, and most are recycled or can simply be composted at the end of their life.

Plastic trees use up fossil fuel, pump out carbon dioxide and polluting chemicals in their manufacture often transported very long distances to get into our shops and cannot be recycled.

A fake tree isn't a tree imo, it's a bit of plastic on a stick.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/greenerliving/6787159/Ditch-fake-Christmas-trees-to-save-planet.html

YABU to buy a tree unseen

I will be getting ours on Friday - it will involve much inspection and walking round looking for gaps, brown bits and sap - it takes time to find the right one!

Fake trees are as grim as fake flowers.

Part of the charm of a real tree is that it's not totally perfect and symmetrical!

I could never have a fake tree, it's just not Christmas without a real tree.

I do not understand the "Oh cutting down a tree is terrible" argument. As trethew says, they are a crop- you are not deforesting a natural forest! Someone is farming them, so when a tree is cut down another one is planted. I am assuming people don't mourn every cabbage or carrot that is harvested for the supermarket?

There is some controversy over whether artificial or natural trees are more ecofriendly. It's hard to judge because a lot depends on things like whether the natural tree has to be imported, when the artificial tree is disposed of, etc. The evidence seems to suggest that natural trees are the slightly greener option, particularly if they are farmed locally and composted rather than burned. There's a detailed, peer-reviewed study here:

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And lol at real trees being bad for the environment and plastics ones aren't...

Your real tree must speak to you. After you've hauled it about to check it's suitability you will know if she's "the one". Personally I'm not a fan of a Norman fir. I'm a spruce traditionalist. I want the smell and the needle drop. I went a bit mad a few years ago and bought a fake tree. Bloody thing is offensive and just smells weirdly of metal and oil. I've seen some impressively bushy fake trees but they're just like very very perfect pyramids and they cost mega bucks.

ninja I read that as you live with a democrat and I couldn't work out what they had against real trees!

We always have real trees. They smell divine when you come downstairs in the morning. We had real ones when I was very small, but space constraints meant we had artificial from about age 10 onwards, and DH always had artificial too.
Both of us knew we'd have real trees, didn't even need to discuss, just the first Christmas we had children, went to get a real tree as a family, repeat every year.
Sometimes they're smaller, when we had toddlers, tiny house etc, sometimes bigger, it's just always seemed right for us.

I always had a real tree growing up, but have now moved to a fake tree. No real reason, just a few years of spindly trees/shedding too early/getting stabbed in the foot by the needles, and one year we bought a fake tree as well as a real tree and that was that. The fake one comes out every year. It's still fun decorating it and putting on the lights. I don't miss hoovering up needles.

I love a real tree but have always had fake. This year we hadn't got room in the house for a tree so I bought a little potted one from lidl for 6.99 it smells lovely and will take pride of place in the garden after Christmas. Hopefully next year we will be in a new house (we better bloody be) and I'll get a proper tree. I'm actually very excited about it.

Up until this year, we have had three trees - one real (in the conservatory), one quite expensive 'real-looking' one in the sitting room, and a small silver tinsel one on the landing (reminds me of childhood Christmases).

We would go as a family to the local Christmas tree farm and follow the procedure upthread-even ds1(now 20) enough to get enthusiastic.

But this year, we're having just one. A real one, which I will squash into the corner of the sitting room (which really isn't big enough). I have no H to consider this year (separated in May), so it's all about what I want.

I have very fond memories of enormous, real trees sitting in the corner of our hall when I was growing up-in my mind they were always at least 20ft tall, bushy and full. I saw a photo recently- they were actually about 12 feet tall and the scrappiest, scrawniest trees you could imagine But, like Emily with Bagpuss, we loved them.

Those of you patting yourselves on the back for having the same fake tree for over 10 years - you're forgetting the fact that, being plastic, it will never degrade and will stay in landfill forever.

Real trees all the way. Op you have to love your tree no matter how awkward looking it may be we have had some amazing ones in the past but one year, when dc was born and we suffered from horrible sleep deprivation dh bought the last remaining tree at the plant nursery, it looked quirky deformed and horrible. I was a bit cross in the beginning but, once it was decorated it wasn't half bad.

Terrifying, ninja!

shodan Yes! To a small child, an 8ft tree looks utterly enormous. Pictures from the 70s reveal sparse, scrawny trees were actually the norm, but they seemed so lustrous and thick to us toddling around, gazing in awe at the lametta strewn vision of Christmas bounty!

That's good to know MiddlingMum. Hopefully in 5-6 years we'll have a house with a garden big enough to plant it permanently. I'm thinking of calling ours Balthazar or Melchior.

Goofy we watched Muppet Christmas Carol after putting our tree up too. I think it's some sort of law isn't it?

Our 1970s tree was tall, silver and extremely spindly. We still loved it and got excited about putting it up. My mum has always refused to have a real tree in the house because it's bad luck

We all had spruce in the 70s, and they do seem a bit spindly compared to the gargantuan Nordman firs which have taken over. Spruce smells nicer, though. But the needles hurt.

We have a fake tree. We spent our early Christmases away from home, so weren't around to water or appreciate a real one.

Now we have DCs and spend more time at home, but we have the fake tree anyway so still use it. I prefer a real tree though. My mum always has a real one, and Christmas isn't the same without battling to get it into a base and within 15 degrees of vertical

A plastic tree is not better for the environment than one which has been locally grown then composted.