Real or fake?

[Obsessedwithgruffalo]

Tree..what do you go for? Dp always wants fake and I love real and grew up loving the whole thing of going to choose one, the look of it etc.
We just got a new artificial one last year so Dp is complaining that I’d like to get a real one, especially now Dd is 3 and it would be a nice experience choosing one.

Aibu to just really prefer a real tree?

Who wants a perfect uniform tidy tree ?! Nothing more beautiful than a wonky untidy real tree in my eyes so much more character!!

@KatharinaRosalie

Always real ones, plastic tree is just not the same.

Yep this.

Fake. Ours previously belonged to my late PIL and we are rather attached to it.

I’ve had three trees in my adult life - two fake (one was sparse so I stripped the branches off, bought another one and stuck the old branches in it to bulk it up and avoid waste), and one year a real tree as my ex wanted one/I’d never had one even in childhood and wanted to try it.

I like both. But can’t justify another real one as it seems so wasteful when I have a perfectly serviceable tree in the loft. I’ve been and done that. It’s getting it down that’s the pest!!

Really good quality fake.

I wish I could have real, but I prefer not to spend December covered in hives.

I've just bought a pot grown nordmann fir 1.5m tall to put outside the french doors and can't wait to see it with lights on.. We always had real growing up and they looked lovely, but my whole marriage (25yrs) we've always had fake. According to my DH we have a forest of fake trees in the loft.. one year I will decorate them all! I will stick to fake inside due to my menagerie of pets and I think it looks lovely decorated so I feel I have the best of both worlds now, and hopefully the pot grown will survive for many years to come!

Get a real one and put it in another room! For the last 8 years I've had two trees. I moved this summer, and there isn't much room for two, though I could make it happen if my heart was set on it...

Fake, I do get that it's plastic which is bad but it will last us probably 15-20 years or more. I prefer real trees to be in the ground, say outside with a few fairy lights on etc. The potted ones are okay, but don't seem to survive well for me when planting out after Christmas.

@Obsessedwithgruffalo

Tree..what do you go for? Dp always wants fake and I love real and grew up loving the whole thing of going to choose one, the look of it etc. We just got a new artificial one last year so Dp is complaining that I’d like to get a real one, especially now Dd is 3 and it would be a nice experience choosing one.

Aibu to just really prefer a real tree?

Not about a tree This difference is social class in a tree debate-love it

I'd rather not have a potential 8ft bonfire in my living room. I'll stick with a fake tree.

I grew up with mainly real trees but I have a prelit fake one I got in the sales from Marks and Spencer when I moved in to my house. It's so much easier for me to just put it together, my house layout is living area on the first floor so getting a real tree up the stairs would be an ordeal. I love gardening and growing trees but I don't like the idea of cutting one down just for it to sit in my house for a few weeks.

Mine is prelit too. I love it. I found it so difficult to get the lights evenly distributed on our previous tree. There’d always be a dark space somewhere.

@RosiePosieDozy Wow, really? Is a real tree not typical then 🤷🏻‍♀️

Except you then have it for years to come, so, although the initial outlay is there, the actual "cost per year" is a fraction of the cost of buying real ones every year.

Yes I know, I don't actually have the money for the initial outlay and hadn't budget for that amount.

I like real trees but I don't think it's worth the hassle so I have a fake one.

Fake. We have an 8ft John Lewis one which was bought in the sales, it's a lovely bushy one and huge

YANBU, real look nicer and smell beautiful, and choosing it is such a fun part of the christmas season.

That said, since you've bought a fake tree you should try to minimise waste by using it for as long as possible.

Love the smell of a real one. It smells like Christmas.

@HolidayTime2021 What class are we both then 🤷🏻‍♀️😅
I grew up with real, although my mum says she can’t be bothered now and has artificial

Fake, keep your wheeze inducing mould spores

We always had a real tree & loved the experience of buying one.
One year we went to the garden centre for mince pies, a look around and pick up a few bits knowing that we would be back for our tree the following week.

When we went back for our tree the prices had doubled!

As they had all been sitting there since the previous week when we’d been it seemed ridiculous, plus it was also now out of our price range. We stopped and picked up an artificial tree on the way home. We’ve now had it nearly a decade so it has saved us a fortune.

Love a real one. Going to get the tree, everyone having a difference of opinion on which to get, then the chopping it down and taking it to be 'sharpened' at the trunk end and netted for the journey home. Magical! But we live in Scandinavia and it is traditional to have a real one and to decorate the outside of the house with greenery.

Fake for me.

I had a school friend die 3 days before Christmas becuase her real tree caught alight. Haunts me even now.

Bought ours from Tesco 5 years ago, and whilst I curse it when putting it up, it looks just as good now as then.

[quote FourTeaFallOut]Fake, keep your wheeze inducing mould spores

I read today that a plastic tree has 10x the carbon footprint of a locally grown christmas tree (including the real ones disposal) because if manufacturing and shipping.
The average lifespan of a fake christmas tree is 4 years.

Anyway, I have a fake tree, spent a LOT of money on it, but its in its 5th year and looks awesome. I've broken even vs real trees after 5 years. I'm aiming for it to last 20 years