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?

We have an artificial one in the lounge but have a smaller real one in the conservatory. Follows on from an annual family tradition of going to dig up a real tree. Now I'm in my own house it is an already dug up one.

HC
x

ChippyMinton thats really lovely.
My fake tree is 17 yrs old ,its a traditional part of our christmas now . My dads fake tree is well over 40 !

We did try a real tree once , it made the cat go berserk.

think our tree will be 29 this year, the fairy must be in her early fifties!

We had a real tree our first year in our house - it smelt blimmin' awful and not at all of pine! Despite watering it religiously and putting it away from direct heat, i.e. everything we were told to do, it went brown and all the needles fell out ruined my first christmas in my own house, so went out and got a really nice fake one.

It's going to last forever and won't every disappoint me.

As mentioned, the Guardian article today on this was good. It did say if you keep your tree for a long time obviously that cuts down the environmental impact. Locally grown 'real' trees were best though.

We have a fake one, Have had it for years and no plans to get rid. It does seem incredibly wasteful to chop down an actual tree each year and stick it in your house only to throw it out 2 weeks later, but I understand that is bias on my part and not entirely rational.

Ivykaty, shocking stuff...I tried to have a mini bonfire in my old garden with a dead xmas tree, it went up so fast I had to pour water all over it! very scary...glad we have asbestos ceilings now and never leave the lights on at night.

Our fake one will last us 50 years. I miss the smell of real ones but not the constant shedding of needles. Saves money year on year. Has built in fibre optic lights which never need replacing. Naff but then isn't Christmas?

i want a real tree but not till the kids are a bit bigger or i will find ds eating it constantly, then again iv also opted for a 3ft out of reach one!

must say everyone look at ivykaty's link! is truely ing!

my parents fake Christmas tree lasted (them) for over 20yrs, they bought it when they had a dog and the dog spread needles all over the house and generally made a mess of it. My DB now has it, and has done for the last 7yrs.

We had a real one a few years ago and yes the smell etc was lovely, but too much hassle and mess so we bought a decent fake one which should last us for years

We tried a real tree in a pot, thinking that that would be ideal, well, we put it up around the 12th of Decembre and well, on X-mas eve dh had to go out and buy a fake tree , because the real one had pretty much lost all it's needles and looked ridiculous and pathetic....we have used a fake tree ever since.
My mum always used a real tree, but then, in Germany you don't put the tree up inside and decorate it until the 24th of Decembre, so, the tree would always be lovely....

OH we add some lovely festive christmas smell to our fake tree by using choclate gingerbread hearts/pretzels and stars from Lidls, it gives such a lovely aroma of x-mas spices

Tasteless my foot. My fake tree is an ironic nod to my seventies childhood. Real trees covered in white lights are so Laura Ashley.

well, your cat won't be tempted to eat a fake tree and land you with expensive vet bills.

you don't have to go anywhere. you just pull it out of the cupboard and set it up.

very little fire risk.

no faffiness with taking it down. just put it back in its box.

cheaper in teh long term, too.

I have to go all the way to the attic to get it out, insteach of driving to the nearest tree plantation/ garden centre

It doesn't she needles (actually it does a bit, but far fewer)

It always looks good, never lopsided of scrappy.

I don't have to take it to the dump at the end.

It has saved me a forture over the years, and given that we have now had it for more than 12 years, I bet it has a lower carbon footprint than 12 years of real ones.

I grew up with real trees and love them, but have had a fake one for about 10 yrs now.

I agree with the other posters who have mentioned how wasteful it seems to kill a tree for the sake of a couple of weeks of decorating your house

Trees are at best carbon neutral. they will take in CO2 and give it out when they are burned/ decay (law of censervation of matter).

You also have to factor in the care of the tree, if it has been fed atificial fertilsers etc, the carbon input into the 'farming' of the things. And obviously you CO2 emessions in getting the tree.

Local sourced, will cut all of this down.

Having a tree in a pot is the best long term solution, but as other have said there often die.

BTW I also have a light up reindeer, called Rudy. He doesn't nod though, he moves his head from side to side

real trees belong in a real forest imho
and for all those who love a real tree can i say that the sight of them lying in puddles,discarded at bins, floating in rivers etc.. is one of the aftermaths of this season that i would really like to be spared...

'A christmas tree is not just for Christmas? ' eh HI?

Our local council will chip them at the end, but it syill is rather sad.

yes too true mb, its frankly one tradition i really wish prince albert had kept zipped about..

our much loved tree (fake) is in size roughly equivalent to a modern dangly earring!

its as big a tribute to christmas consumerism that i will make..

we do have a nice fake tree, which cost us about £70 12 years ago. This was a vast amount for us to pay at the time, and I seriously doubted that we had done the right thing. But it has saved us a bloody fortune over the years.

Haven't read the whole thread but we have always had a fake tree. When I was young my cousin got a pine needle in his eye, eye got infected and he looked like he'd done ten rounds with Tyson - now I know the odds of it happening again are unlikely but its always stuck in my mind.

I was bought up with real trees, but despite the lovely smell etc they really are a faff to deal with and I like to put the tree up quite early, so a real one would never last long enough. We threw away our original tree last year (10 years, and three toddlers had not been kind to it unfortunately) and I'm just waiting for our new one to arrive from the catalogue. 7ft, skinny (small flat) undecorated classic green tree for £14, well, £12.60 as I got a 10% discount. I could never get a real one for that price, and this one will last us years!

However this thread has made me really nostalgic, so i think I'll get a little potted real one for the table, just for the smell, and then plant it in my sisters garden, lol.