Or do fake trees always look crap?

[heyyyottoe]

So I treated myself to a Balsam Hill tree and I’m honestly shocked at how shit it looks.

All my previous trees weren’t great but I thought buying this brand would be better … how mistaken I was.

so sparse and ugly. If I ever bother to decorate I’ll just get a real tree from now one.

Yeah it does. In the same way that even if you keep your artificial one for 30 years, it still ends up in landfill.

Christmas trees are not native and only grow here to be cut and sold. It’s not like we would live in a narnia dream world with fir trees everywhere if everyone had fake trees.

An artificial tree is more sustainable than a real tree if you use the same one for approx 10 plus years. So it's worth investing in a good one.

Let’s face it, if any of us were really bothered about the environmental impact we wouldn’t have a Christmas tree at all. They’re not a necessity.

Some fake trees are better than others but I agree what you say about Balsam Hill. My friend bought one and it was absolutely shocking terrible quality.She paid £300 for it and I've seen better for a quarter of the price. She sent it back and bought one from the local garden centre.

Off topic, but BMW6, is that a cat exercising thing next to your tree? How do you stop the two being used for cat gymnastics? I'm asking because we've had to abandon our really nice artificial tree until our SchiTzu learns some manners.
And in answer to the OP, ours looked great and most of the real trees people are posting about are dead trees and don't smell of anything anymore.

We've got one that really does look realistic and it's still in excellent condition 8 years later. It was expeat the time but half price in the sales.

The bugs alone are a put off for me.

I’ve already had an outbreak of Weevils thanks to some bird seed. The thought of having to deal with those again or spiders is enough for me to stick to a fake tree!

Each to their own. Some folk like real trees, some of us prefer fake ones. You do you is my attitude. What’s unnecessary, is the sheer snobbery from the real tree folk, towards those who opt for fake trees.

No one is perfect, every single one of us have character flaws. If being a ‘Christmas tree snob’ is my biggest character flaw then I’ll take that to be honest, but will consider myself suitably chastised and will work on improving myself.

Mines 15 years old and was given to me by a friend ten years ago. It was eye wateringly expensive when she bought it.

By far the most sensible thing from an environmental standpoint is to keep using it basically forever.

Fake trees are shite.

Incorrect.

I haven’t read the whole thread. I used to work in a garden centre and you need to manipulate each branch. So say g is the bottom level. G1 goes from the ‘trunk’ down curve, up curve, down curve, etc. G2 goes up, down, up and so on. It makes a huge difference.

Nonsense. What a ludicrous, narrow-minded generalisation. 🙄

You definitely need to take that back! I’ve got a Balsam Hill tree that I bought off FB marketplace for £50, and while you do need to fluff a bit - or at least untwist the branches - it is really full as soon as you put it together. There is no fluffing in the world that will make that one look ok - it needs at least double the branches. Hope you get your money back and find your tree OP!

This. ^ There's something rather selfish, self-serving, and arrogant about chopping down a live tree that's been growing for a decade or more, just for your own entertainment, and then scrapping it 2-3 weeks later... It's quite sad......

And it's even worse if the tales some people come out with on here are to be believed... That they don't put up the tree til a few days before Christmas day, and then take it down on Boxing day! (This only applies if it's a real tree of course!

.

Don’t be ridiculous!
Buying real Christmas trees isn't inherently bad; they're often grown on farms, absorb CO2, support local jobs, and can be recycled, but choose locally grown, potentially organic/FSC certified ones to minimize transport footprint and pesticide impact, making them generally better than plastic trees that have a huge carbon footprint and create plastic waste unless reused for over a decade. I

I mean you could just accept, that having a real tree doesn’t make you better than others.

That would be a start.

It’s not really a character flaw is it? It’s more of a behavioural issue. As in behaving like a bit of a twat for no reason..

Less looking down your nose at people, more accepting of others choices

I just prefer real trees to fake ones. It’s not that deep. I also don’t believe it’s a character flaw, I was just being facetious because there was so much drama over people preferring real trees to fake ones 🤷🏻‍♀️.

@KilliMonjaro but most people do reuse for over a decade. I have been using mine for 19 years and see no reason to stop.
Those saying the trees should stay in the ground, they wouldn’t be there unless there was a demand for real trees. If everyone switched to fake the tree growers would chop them down and grow something else they could sell.

They look fine imo and I'd rather a slightly less 'nice' tree than still be finding bloody pine needles at easter.

Yes they look like fake trees, which is fine. Nice and easy and you can just pack them up and reuse them year after year and did I mention not having to deal with the 🤬 pine needles.

Water it every day and you won't have a problem they said. Bloody liar.

Op I know you said you fluffed, but looking at it, I’m not sure you’ve done it correctly, everything is pointing up. Giving the sparse look. You need to fluff so every little section of branches is effectively a 360. Once it is done the first time it’s easier in subsequent years,

We've had our tree for 24 years, still looks fab. I couldn't bear the thought of cutting down and then wasting 24 real trees - that's what people will be shaking their heads at.

I think all trees in your house, real or fake look like crap. I can't stand the idea of taking a tree that a few days ago was a living growing thing, happily soaking up the rain and feeling the sun on its leaves, and then you took a saw to it, chopped it down, stuck a bucket of sugar water under its bleeding stump to try to keep it on life support long enough so it would look pretty to get you through the holidays. Yuck. Barbaric.

The nice thing about a fake tree is, you can keep that sucker around for decades. So it's not really having that much of an environmental impact in terms of landfill etc. Plus, when you are tired of it you can always repurpose the various limbs, there are so many decorative crafts where you can use parts of Christmas trees in the wreath, or in the decoration, so it's very easy to repurpose.

Fig trees are fake. They are starting point for the decorative element. For all of the glitter and glow. For the tinsel and the garlands. You're going to cover that sucker with lights, hang half a million baubles on it... You'll barely even see the tree when you're done, if you decorate it properly. It's like a plain cake. You can eat a cake absolutely plain, but it doesn't look like much. No, you cut it in half, you put a filling in the middle, you whip up a beautiful frosting, you cover the outside, you pipe some decorative flowers or script or other pretty things on top and all of a sudden that plain cake looks lovely. Same with the fake tree.

My tree still is a living, growing thing @StruggleFlourish because I rented it from Christmas On The Hill.

They brought it to my door the other day in it's pot and will pick it up again in three weeks or so when it can go back outside with the other trees. You sound very dramatic.

www.christmasonthehill.co.uk