If you tend to get a fake Christmas tree, why?

[Spidermama]

Wouldn't you rather have a real one?
I don't understand fake trees. What are the advantages?

I am torn this year, have always had an artificial one, well for the last 7years I've been 'doing' xmas trees, but now we have a house thats big enough, and I think the DC's would leave it alone, I'm really considering getting a potted one, but I don't know, arghhh, help!

5 years !

Who throws away their tree after 5 years ?

My parents are still using one that we had when we were little in the early 70's. It just requires more green tinsel to decorate it these days .

Is there a whiff of tree snobbery in the air and some unspoken "I am considerably greener than you" going on here ?

We have an artificial one and will continue to use it until both kids are old enough not to potentially eat the dropped needles. I will also not have a real one again until I have a cleaning lady to hoover for me. We were still finding pine needles in July one year after having real trees.

If I do switch back to real ones, the artificial one will either remain in the loft or go to a charity shop or be freecycled. No landfill there.

We got our tree when we moved in 1984, so it's now 23 years old - I think it's earned its green points by now. This was taken just before DS went to school 15 years ago & it still looks pretty much the same now.

We always had real ones - dh's father lives next to a fir tree plantation and every year we'd pick and cut our own. Then we moved to a little one and we had fake ones and i hated it. Now we've movede again and have a conservatory it's back to the real thing. I love the smell and the spikeyness!Don't see the whole waste of a tree thing - that's why they were planted.

I was brought up with real trees but we have fake tree now, don't like the mess real ones make, you have to pick them up & get them home somehow & then you have to get rid of them, they also continuously drop all over the floor.

Can buy a fake one which is nice that lasts for years so only one payout.

Dp was brought up with no tree as his family were JW's.

We have always had a fake tree. The one we have now, which we got about 5 years ago, is a 6 ft Canadian pine. its nice and big, looks great decorated and then can be put away in the cupboard. No fallen needles etc.

Lissie -if your DS won't leave the tree alone - have you got a playpen?
When DD was little I put the tree inside the playpen, on a small table so she couldn't get at it & filled the space between with balloons & later put the presents in there too, so no-one was tempted to fiddle!

Real all the way here. We go to a local farm and pay £1 per foot, usually go for 7ft so £7. Ergo, cost not an issue.
When we finish with it the council do a tree recycling servic. Added to that the tree helps with reducing CO2/adding o2 while growing. Environment not an issue.
real trees are bee-yoo-tiful and smell divine.

If you are not a household containing people with SN, I cannot understand WHY you would opt for a fake.

(Unless you are completely tasteless (runs))

I sat in on a fire training some 5 years ago and will never forget the real christmas tree part.

I have never had a real christmas tree in the house since then - it was more alarming than I even care to imagine

A house fire with a christmas tree is fatal.

So I went and got a pretend one, it doesn't smell the same and doesn't feel the same but being aware of the great risk I just don't care {happy]

www.usfa.dhs.gov/citizens/all_citizens/home_fire_prev/holiday-seasonal/treefire.shtm

I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to my children because I didn't water the tree.

i have a fake white one. its 10years old. and each year we say 'we must get a new one for next year' but still we keep on using it.

Teeny tiny house. little, little children. Needles not a good addition to the mix. However, I would like a real tree in the future.

People saying about cost, are you the folk that buy them from B&Q etc? Cos I think £7 is cheap for a tree as big as my ceiling. Or is £7 per year outweighed by spending £30ish every 6-7 years
I do take ivykaty's point on board though.

Real trees are a pain in the arse. They shed everywhere and the needles HURT and they are too messy and you have to faff about with them at the end of the season. Far better to have one you can use for a few years. IMO anyway.

Cheaper as reusable, don't drop needles everywhere, they are the right shape and they have plenty of 'foliage' All to often the ones in shops never look like photos in books and magazines. They don't have enough branches or they are all spindley. The real ones smell and they are generally damp from having been outside.

Oh and things live in them.

Why would anybody want a real one?

Slouchy, you're very lucky you can get a real tree for £1 a ft. I'm in London & round the corner from us there's one of those temporary Christmas Forest places. I went last year to get a small growing tree to supplement the fake one we use (love the smell of real ones). There was a posh woman there in a 4x4 who spent ages choosing a big tree - she had the poor guy getting out this one & that one. Anyway, she finally chose & went to settle up. When the guy said it was £60 she visibly blanched but was too posh & embarrassed to back out...

Which sort of explains why I (reluctantly) opt for fake.

Sorry, meant to add - if I could pay £1 or even £2 a ft I would get a real one, but the crappiest 5ft trees round our way cost at least £25.
I did get a wee tree in a pot from that place for £12, but it's pathetic, really. It's like that one in Merry Christmas Charlie Brown. it survived the year so I'll be bringing it back in soon...

Real tree + two dogs = stinky house and one big headache!

Fake is much easier

There was an article in the guardian today about this.
It recommended buying a locally sourced , locally grown,locally composted tree as it is more environmentally friendly.
Summat about...providing habitat as they are evergreen and that they are young trees so absorb more CO 2 and that they are a low pollution crop.
The most evil according to same article were real trees which were shipped in to the uk.

I do love the smell of real trees but when we lived in Bangkok funnily enough you couldn't get them so we bought a fake one in 1990 and we are still using it.

Have had real ones occasionally since. First year we were here in Budapest I asked the gardener could he get me one in a pot that we could replant. It was about 80 pounds and died when we replanted it!

Another year we had the fake tree up in the living room and I bought a small real tree especially as I had seen gorgeous decorations in Ikea that I wanted and they wouldn't "go" on my other tree!

This year we will use the fake as we are going away won't be here to water.

Our artificial one is a family heirloom - DH bought it for his first xmas away from home, complete with the fairy from his mum's first tree when she left home. Both are rather limp but meaningful.

I grew up with real ones. Then when DD was little we got a cheap artificial one for some reason, something to do with kittens I think.

I want to go back to real ones, was thinking on splashing out for a container grown one so it could be outside most of the year then back in for Christmas. However DD is now completely attached to the artificial one and looks devestated to the point of tears at the idea of having another. So I guess it will be the artifical one for the next 10 years until she leaves home.

We have a real tree every xmas, it's only a small one that sits on a table. At night we shut the living room door and the next day the room smells so wonderful of pine,

Fake all the way here.

Had my fake tree for 7 years so far and its still going strong.

COuldnt be dealing with the mess of a real tree with 3 under 3.5yrs in the house.

Maybe one day when the kids are grown up I will consider a real tree for one year and see what Im missing - never had a real tree - EVER.