Real tree Vs artificial tree? Is it a status symbol?

[CatsWhiskers1976]

Just putting up our artificial tree and having some thoughts.
At work the other day we got to discussing Christmas trees, and the old real vs artificial debate. It seemed to me that there was a bit of 'snobbery' against those who had artificial trees (maybe that's just where I work!). There were those who said artificial trees were just TERRIBLE for the environment. Given that most people I know have had their tree for many years (our family one was about 40 years old before it was replaced) is this really true? Cutting down live trees is okay for the environment? I have never had a real tree, growing up I didn't know anyone who had a real tree and in our circles it was usually only the slightly more well off people who ever had real trees. Apologies if this offends anyone, it was just my experience as a child growing up in working class Scotland.
Some people at work looked horrified at the thought of having a 'plastic' tree (mind, they were going off to cut the perfect one down on their 'estate').
So what do you think? Real Vs artificial? I spent a fair bit a few years ago to get a really nice realistic looking artificial tree which I hope will last years. At the time we had cats and I was afraid they would get hurt/never leave the real tree alone so I have stuck with artificial.
What does everyone else have? Do you judge people with fake trees?

Real tree growing up, real before children. Then discovered the joy of artificial. They’re the best. Up and down in no time. Perfect looking. Quite smug about them.

No real tree here (husband is allergic). Last artificial tree lasted 15 years, this one is on Christmas number 6.

Red & warm white lights, green/gold/red/white decorations (never tinsel), have been building the bauble collection for about 25 years. Lots of garlands (full of real dried orange, cinnamon & artificial berries), warm white lights, decoupage Victorian style baubles hanging from them.

Bedroom tree - 5ft white tree, all shades of pink, maroon & champagne baubles, pink lights - it’s everything the downstairs tree & decorations is not!

Never tinsel. If you’ve ever seen a dog’s bottom acting as a tinsel dispenser, you’ll be put off tinsel too.

I think if you use your artificial tree for many years, grow your bauble collection (I’ve everything from things the children made at school, to drunken lockdown craft night felt baubles made this year), and don’t buy different decor based on a different fad every year, it’s as good as you can get if you go down the artificial, plastic route.

@CentrifugalBumblePuppy
If you’ve ever seen a dog’s bottom acting as a tinsel dispenser, you’ll be put off tinsel too.

Have you been at the sherry? Or did your dog eat tinsel and you had to wait for nature to take its course before you could decorate the tree??

I never said it actively decorated the tree lol.

Parents dog. Ate anything. Including tinsel. After x rays & vomiting, the only way we could watch for the chewed, shiny pieces to be completely evacuated was to monitor the shiny shite until it became clear. Was the same dog that ate the kitchen table and Mum’s catalogue Club money when I was a child. A wonderful English setter, when it wasn’t eating what it shouldn’t. Her name was Lady. She was anything but!

We get real ones and they are lovely but a pain in the arse. Plus I feel terrible when we get rid of them in january.
Yes they smell nice but make such a mess. They're always 3 times wider than you think they will be!
I'd like to try an artificial one next time...

I’m 42 and we always had a real tree, I even had real 7ft enormous jobs when living on my own in a tiny house. Fake trees are hideous, real or don’t bother in my book. Choosing the tree, having a row trying to get the bastard thing level in the pot, and again over putting on the lights evenly is all part of Christmas in our house. Fortunately DH was also of real tree heritage, I couldn’t marry a fake tree person. Christmas ruined that would’ve been!

My grandmother had a spectacularly awful white fake tinsel monstrosity straight out of the 60’s. Yuck. Even 6 year old me thought it was shite.

Yes there are much nicer fake ones now but they are still no patch on the real thing.

We have a carefully curated mass of individual decorations, mainly from Germany as MIL lives there. No tinsel, white lights only (non flashing) and mostly non baubles. I don’t like to have more than 2 of the same decorations on a tree.

Themed fake trees are “common” according to my mother-we are proud tree snobs

It has nothing to do with class for me.

I have a dog, 2 cats and a 4 year old.

Enough said!

I had real trees growing up. That's because we lived in a mountainous area and my grandfather had a large plot of land with pine trees growing on it.

Now we have a plastic one. I prefer it but I do miss the smell of the pine and the excitement we used to feel when we'd go and cut one down.

I had the tree from when my job at the time moved offices and they asked if anyone wanted it or it would go to the skip. So not only did I save an artificial tree from landfill (polishes halo ), it was a 7ft Homebase fancy tree that is on it's 13th Christmas with me and still going strong. Warm lights, a general gold and bronze theme but now with added child craft creations added on.

My family had an artificial tree for years and the kind of 80s multicoloured OTT decor that was popular in the day. Now it's just DM she has a smaller artificial tree. DHs family get a real tree. Needles everywhere!

Those of you who feel sad that the tree has been cut down and is "slowly dying" in your living room, do you feel the same about a bunch of flowers? Christmas trees are a crop for consumption just like carrots or potatoes. If we didn't plant trees for "harvesting" each year then those areas would be used for what? The growing of xmas trees contributes to the reduction of CO2.

Anyway, that's not why I have one, as lots of people have said previously we have a real tree because that's what my family always had growing up (middle class, rural), I didn't know anyone who had a fake tree then or even realise they existed until I was a bit older. It's part of Christmas for me and i think I'd rather not have a tree than have a fake plastic one in the corner of the room. To me it's sad that so many Christmas traditions are replaced with more sanitary, easy options.

I usually have both as we grow trees for timber. They've grown too big to manhandle this year so I had to buy another artificial one. I may go back to both next year as we're talking about thinning out some of the weaker trees.

Bloody hate Christmas therefore I insist on a plastic tree, so it can go up and down with min fuss. If I had my way it would never go up. I am Grinch class.

I agree more well to do families growing up had a real tree. We had same tree 20+ years growing up can't see how cutting 20 trees down and using fuel to get it is more environmentally friendly.

I hate the idea of cutting down a tree just to have in your house for Christmas. I have real conifers in the garden that I put lights on. We've had the same artificial tree for 18 years indoors.

do you feel the same about a bunch of flowers?

Yes. I tend to only have cut flowers in the house where I've got hundreds of say, leucanthemum growing and it is actually doing the plant a favour to give it a bit of a trim. And if people buy them for me, of course. But I'd prefer (another) house plant.

I've always had artificial. Our previous one was on it's last legs and this is the first year both kids really appreciate the whole Christmas thing, so we made a big deal of getting a real tree and putting the lights on, then letting the toddlers loose with the decorations. Thankfully the cat is now old enough not to attack it at every opportunity!

I love the smell and how it looks, but am already sick of the needles. Might have to sell a kidney next year and get a magic non dropping variety 🎄

Middle class. Artificial tree bought 20 years ago for, I expect, no more than £30 from Homebase. No tinsel but both coloured and white lights. Random mismatched ornaments including high end bought in the sales in January and bits and bobs picked up on my travels.

Every year I say I am buying a new one and look longingly at Balsam Hill and every year I am glad I haven't.

Definitely agree it's a class divide, as is tinsel! Grew up in a real tree household but after a nasty house fire caused by a dried out real xmas tree when I was a teenager I will never, ever have a real tree in my house, I really miss the smell though. @womaninatightspot love the oranges as baubles idea!

I’ve had both. My MIL gave us her wonderful artificial tree a couple of years ago and we haven’t looked back. My son adores building it, it doesn’t piss needles all over the floor or bugs or cost is an arm or a leg. There is literally nothing not to like.

Working class childhood and a mixture of real and artificial, mostly artificial I think. The real trees were for a couple of years when we lived in a house with a larger living room.

As an adult, we had artificial for a few years but had real trees for about 12 years. I love them and it's part of our start of Christmas tradition now.

We also went through a stage of colour coordinating but soon realised it was seriously tacky and I love the mishmash of collected decorations so much more.
We usually buy one or two new baubles each year when we choose our tree.

I was worried about having a tree at all this year as we have a naughty puppy but she hasn't really gone near it which is good.

Dead against tinsel though, lights and baubles only on my tree.

Any sneering/looking down noses is IMO usually confined to the white vs coloured lights issue, tinsel/no tinsel, ‘tasteful’/non tasteful decorations.

A firmly MC ex neighbour of ours once asked me what colour tree we were having that year.
Er, green?
She used to buy a whole different set of decorations each year in whatever colour scheme - and then complain of being hard up!

We’re in the always-real-tree camp, but our decorations are a motley collection, some going back many decades. Plus warm white and coloured lights - last year - oh joy! I found a set of the old fashioned twinkly coloured ones, not those horrible, harsh, LED jobs.

Forgot to say absolutely no judgment or snobbery re real or fake but I do think it's absolute fucking madness to spend hundreds of pounds on a tree. Those Balsam Hill ones are about 1k!

@24hrpantypeople

Forgot to say absolutely no judgment or snobbery re real or fake but I do think it's absolute fucking madness to spend hundreds of pounds on a tree. Those Balsam Hill ones are about 1k!

Most are way less than 1k. They were running an early bird promotion in October (may have been early November), our unlit 7fter was 279. They have a different promo just now and our older one (also 7ft, pre lit) is currently showing 429 but we definitely paid similar price to the new one They're a bit like DFS, always a sale on. There are a few 1k but the vast majority of normal sized trees aren't.

So yes, hundreds of pounds but around here a 7ft real tree is around £70 - the older one is on it's 4th year so we'd have spent roughly the same on real trees, but every use from now on is effectively free by comparison and it has many many years left in it.

We always had real growing up and I always have. We buy a more expensive nondrop one. It's a tree. Artificial is a decoration. Different things.

We always had a real tree when I was a kid. I have an artificial tree because real trees harbour a bacteria which can make my husband very poorly.

I actually prefer the uniformity of an artificial tree now. But others will prefer real. I think its a weird thing to be snobby about.