To find real Christmas trees sad?

[BlackAldi]

Hear me out, I love the look of a real tree but it makes me really sad to see trees that have been chopped down just so they can be a Christmas tree for a couple of weeks. Seeing them out on the roadside for rubbish collection in January also feels really sad and wasteful.

We have a fake tree (I realise there are other environmental issues with that) that is 12 years old and hopefully can last another decade. And also a little potted for tree that we bring in for Christmas then put back in the garden for the next year (so it’s a living tree and no killing/chopping needed).

anyone else feel sad about chopped real trees?

This.

Oh dear.

Food is consumed though. You don’t grow potatoes to decorate them, leave them around for a month around the house, and then compost them.

I don’t have a problem with real Christmas trees personally. I’m always surprised at how people are fine with Christmas trees but so aghast at pumpkins not being consumed at Halloween.

I think the opposite. Real trees are better for the environment and look better in my opinion. I also spray mine with water every now and then and it gives off a lovely alpine smell.

Our fake tree must be 30+ years old now, the one and only tree we have ever bought, so since we have it best to keep using it!

@BingosMumma not quite sure what you mean re "typical MN having an opinion ...." Isn't the purpose of this thread to share opinions?

I leave my grass in spring too, but that's a completely different issue. You don't have wildflowers growing in Xmas tree plantations in December.

Agree. But it's the same as buying flowers really?

We live in Germany and always have a real tree, which DH and DD choose and cut down themselves at the tree nursery in mid-December. After Christmas (usually around 10 January), it gets collected by the council in a special collection and is mulched. Trees that the nursery cuts down itself but doesn't sell for some reason are transported to the zoo as food for the elephants, goats and deer.

I don't think I could ever have a fake tree. Real ones smell just glorious!

Don’t feel sad, they are a crop.

do you feel sad when you see potatoes?
cut flowers?

It isn't a bad use of land tbh. If the local places wasn't doing trees, they'd probably be selling off land for housing. There are collections across Merseyside (where my family are) that raises money for local hospices. The trees get composted. Like the flower industry it provides jobs. Real greenery is mentally uplifting.

I love them, but each to their own. They are just another commercially grown crop, ours is taken away by the council with green waste to be made into compost.

They also have very little value to wildlife (compared with most other trees) so it is no great loss to have them felled.

I really cannot abide the stench of them or I would probably still get a smaller one for the kitchen area.

£35 Fraser fur tree, from Papervale nurseries, Newry, free post and packing from eBay. It's 3-4 years old, will grow a foot each year. Soft needles, thinner and smells beautiful

With you

Didn't know this of it benefits other life then that's a good thing

I don't think it is sad, just think it should be actively discouraged.

Christmas trees are a crop.

They can grow on land that cannot be cultivated for other purposes and do not require lots of damaging fertiliser, insecticides etc. They cause no damaging run off as other crops do.

Councils collect them to mulch etc, and they are good for this exactly due to their low-chemical contamination.

I would rather decorate a branch or something than resort to a fake tree.

I wish we could have a real tree. They smell beautiful and at least don't involve lots of plastic in their manufacture.

But DS is really allergic to Christmas trees, we can't even visit houses that have them.

Our council collects them up and mulches them for compost. It isn't bad for the environment at all. Real Christmas trees are grown in sustainable tree farms and not all the trees are harvested every year as it takes years to grow to a usable size. Of all the environmental impacts and wastefulness of Christmas, real trees are not the thing to be worrying about!

I don't find ours sad, but we are woodworkers and will use the trunk once we've finished with it.

As others have said, they are pretty quick growing trees, planted specifically as Christmas trees.

I agree with you. I always feel a bit sad when I see rootless trees chucked out after Christmas. Here's a little story about a real tree. Many years ago (probably around 1964) my parents bought a real tree,about 6 feet tall,with roots. After the festive season,they planted it in the back garden. They brought it in the following year to use,then replanted it,but the year after that it was a bit tall to bring in,so they bought a fake tree (they were just becoming popular in the mid 60s). When they moved house in 1967,they dug up the tree and took it with them! They honestly didn't think it would like being moved,but to their surprise,it thrived,going from strength to strength. It's still there,I reckon it must be about 60 feet tall now!

Agreed.

Also people really get upset seeing them throw out....? they're taken to the local recycling centres. Y'know that bark mulch you buy at the garden centre? It's all the old Christmas trees.

We get our real tree form a tree farm every year. The council collect them and they get buried in the sand dunes to stop them being eroded away.

I once had a long conversation with the tree farmer, when we happened to turn up at a not busy time.

He told me they plant little plugs, an inch high, quite close together. Then each year they cut them down - not all at the same time, but thinning out gradually - so that each year the remaining trees get more space to grow bigger and bigger and they always have a selection of sizes to sell.

When there is room, they intersperse new plugs in amongst the big trees, and the cycle continues.

It seems a good model to me, constant tree cover, admittedly not as good as native/deciduous but wouldn't want to be cutting down deciduous hardwoods either, soaking up CO2 like it's going out of fashion (young trees absorb more than older trees), not much heavy machinery used in planting as the bigger tees are in the way, very few 'miles' as they sell direct to the end consumer. No microplastics from discarded trees breaking down and getting in ground water, and a threatened sand dune habitat preserved with an entirely natural product once Xmas is over.