Real tree ?

[Hideehi]

Anyone else love them ?

I don't care about the mess I love a big pine tree in the living room, covered in chocolates.

We always have a real one here too -love them, especially the smell

oh god yes

oh yes

real trees chez filly

the bigger the better

(when I was little my dad was a gardener and always pruned a huge tree around xmas, so we had an enormous one. Sometimes we had to bend the top over by a foot or two...)

We always have a real tree too.

Dds first xmas, i let her rip it to shreds the night before we took it down, she was 7 months, have got some lovely photos of her with handfuls of tree!

Yep, always have a real one. Nothing like shovelling pine needles up in January and finding the last chocolate on the tree right round the back!

We got one for the first time since dd1 was born last year and she turned out to be allergic to it

I would like a real tree this year but I do like to put up tree early December. Would it survive tll new years if I buy one so early? Thats the only thing putting me off.

We always have a real tree. I like them, because they look real, but also because they SMELL wonderful!

for a tree to last a long time indoors it needs to be a rooted one in a pot AND be looked after- so watered and not over heated. cut trees will last 2 wks or so if treated well, they also need watering tho to look their best for longest. Buy a tree as soon as poss after it was cut, they suffer and dry out every day they are being "stored". You get better trees going to a forestry place rather than high street grocer or B&Q.

We got one last year that was rooted in a pot and it's still alive in the garden so we'll be able to reuse it this year!

Oh, yes, it has to be a real tree. I love the ritual of going to pick one out and then following dh home in my car as he drives ahead with the tree hanging out of his car window, love dh swearing trying to get it to stand up straight and having to saw amother bit off the bottom to make it even, love the smell, love decorating it in red and gold and sitting beside it with a nice glass of wine watching the light dance off the decorations and inhaling the lovely pine smell.

Real one every time!

We get ours from the Somerset Wildlife Trust HQ - last year we chose our tree whilst it was still growing and they cut it down for us. Can't get much fresher than that. It's a good way to raise funds for the trust. We really enjoy getting it - we chose the tree, go for a walk and then take it home and put it up. A family tradition now. Never had much trouble with dropping needles - we just stick the bottom in a container of water and top it up a few times. We only put it up about the weekend before Christmas so I suppose it doesn't get the chance to dry out. Couldn't do it if it went up 1st December like so many seem to do round here.

i feel bad for the tree and get a fake one (not black though) poor trees

The yearly argument

Me= real

DH = fake

Dh always wins coz he does the vacuuming

Real! And HUGE!

Real tree definitely - we've still go our potted one from B&Q outside in the garden. This will be the third xmas, not sure it will go through the back door tho, has got a bit bushy since last year .

Another vote for a real one. Deffo worth paying extra for none drop needles, but the smell makes up for the extra hoovering

I love a real tree but after having one last year I said I wouldn't do it again. The needles dropping everywhere were a pain but I could deal with them. The only thing I found was we had trouble keeping the tree upright - we bought a crap stand and the tree kept tilting sideways. Gonna stay with our artificial one this year I think. Totally agree though the smell is lovely - especially on christmas morning.

I've got one in my garden that i was going to dig up this year, and put in a pot. I didn't know if the needles would fall though, because of the heat. Could i replant it again after, or should it live in a pot then?
if its risky, i'll leave it where it is

Do the living trees still have that wonderful pine smell? same as a cut tree because that is the part i love smell that fills the house

Real. But presumably it's a toss up which is worse, environmentally.

I love real ones, but we usually put our decs up early, and they don't last. We've got a big 7ft fake one that is actually really good-looking, and I stick one of those Yankee candles on that smells all christmassy.

i just never know where to stick the thing, either. It's got to be close enough to a socket for the lights, but all our sockets are near radiators, so that's no good for real trees either..

We have a real (rooted) one that lives outside on the balcony the rest of the year. I've been wondering but how we're going to get it in this year, though, as it's getting heavier. A we're not at home for Christmas itself and it's right outside the window I'm considering just decorating it where it is and not worrying about bringing it in.

used to be real but I got too distressed when they inevitably died. Dead trees are so sad. so now we stick to plastic.

Real ?
Must be better environmentally surely ?
Ours comes from a farm in the village. They have a field full growing and sucking up carbon all year. We choose our tree, they cut it down, we take it home (1/2 mile). At the beginning of January there is a centrally organised collection where the trees are shredded and go for recycling. We walk down to the collection poing, dragging our (now rather bare) tree behind us.
Smells nice too.

We always have a real tree (we cut it locally and bring home week before christmas). However, we are always disappointed at the lack of smell... not like childhood memories.

We've tried buying from different places, get different types of tree - all to no avail. How can you guarantee that lovely piney scent??