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've had a fake one for the last 3 years for the same reasons as most people on here, less cost, less mess and toddlers and pine needles are a bad combination. We bought quite an expensive one so it looks very real and it even has the lights attached to it so we don't have the hassle of untangling lights each year. Funnily enough because we use the same decorations on the tree that we've had for years they make the tree smell like a real one too as they must have caught the smell off all our past real trees!

Now I was brought up with a fake tree - got a real one several years ago and loved it. My current real tree is three years old - it was bought with a root (dug up from the chase) and its been put back in the garden and fetched back in each year Think it might have to go after this year though.

I get distressed when the needles drop and they die. After several years of trying to care for our trees and plant them out after we gave up and had a plastic one for a while. It was less traumatic.

Last year we had a real one again but I do find it stressful watching them decline. [tree-hugger emoticon]

Fake trees can be sentimental too. We have had a splendid one for about 4 years now but we also have a spindly 4 ft one that DH bought as a student 15 years ago.

We also still have one of the balls we decorated for it and a delightful piece of mustard coloured tinsel that was all he could afford at the time.

They also come out every year.

Real ones are a pain in the arse. You are hoovering up pine-needles until April.

If you get a John Lewis fake one, it's almost indistinguishable from the real thing (unless you are really looking).

Always swore I'd have a real one and we always did as kids but until my toddler years are done I'm sticking to the yank proof, needle secure fake ones. Just trying to think of a place up high enough to be toddler proof this year.

Because I have 2 dogs that moult enough, Ta very much.
Hoovering once a day is plenty enough for me.

Plus DH has very soft feet and sometimes gets a dog hair stuck in his sole......?!! Nuts!

We always had a real one when I was growing up and there is nothing quite like the smell of them! I also agree that fake ones don't look as good either.

However, we always have fake ones now. Firstly I can't bear to see them die and then have to be dumped/chipped afterwards - such a waste of a tree . Secondly they drop needles everywhere.

I agreed to let DH get a real one 2 years ago and after a couple of weeks it was dropping needles like nobody's buisiness. Then one evening DS2 bumped into it and it shed about a quarter of it's needles in one go! DH decided to get rid of it and get a fake one but as he was taking it out it caught on the living room doorframe and shed the rest of the needles! They were apparently all over the walls (due to static) as well as all over the floor - I was unfortunately at work but would have paid to see DH's face !

Strangely enough when I came home from work there was a nice new fake (and half price as it was so close to Christmas) one twinkling in the corner!

Plus before we had DS2 and both of us were working, DH and I splashed out silly money on our beautiful 7ft tree.
It looks real and it means we can leave branches off the back so it can fit back into the corner of the lounge in our small house.
As kids, a special memory for both of us was a tree that looked like 'the biggest tree in the world' so that's what we got!!

needle drop. I like real trees but finding one the right size/shape for the room is difficult and also I find that the needles have all fallen off by Christmas Eve (we like our tree up on the first Sunday in Dec).

This year we are going to buy the ideal artificial tree and to hell with the tatse police who feel that fake is offensive...

i have a fake tree because i think trees shuld be growing in fields, not in folks houses

same reason as i dont like cut flowers in the house

easy

also the cat tends to pee on it

I can't help but think real ones are a bit of a waste too.

We have a real one. We bought it as a living tree years ago, it lives outside (in a pot) and gets hauled in for Christmas and then out again.

This year I think we'll just let it sit out the festive season outside, perhaps with some solar fairy lights. It's getting bigger and more awkward to manhandle inside and to be honest I don't think it really likes being centrally heated for a few weeks.

So if we want an inside tree we'll need to get a new one. It seems kind of well insensitive to the living tree to haul in a dead one, somehow. And I don't like dropped needles (will have tree and crawling DD in reasonably confined living space next year, so that will be a particular issue). So probably I'll buy a small good-quality artificial one and try to keep it going for several decades. Haven't firmly decided yet, though -- it's possible we could just end up going with the outside tree and pile the presents up by the nearest window, at least for this year.

I can see the appeal of a plastic tree I must admit. No mess, no hassle etc. And in my weaker moments I have considered buying one but DH would leave home if I did. However I don't think I ever could really do it. Choosing and bringing home a real tree is part of Christmas...as it was when I was a child.

May I ask those believers in the real tree...when do you put your tree up?

We always had real trees until a few years ago

We put it the garden and had a bonfire. I have never seen anything like it. One match and it was a fire ball! It had dries out so much being in the house for a month

It terrified me, if that had gone up n flames indoors, it would have been devastating

Never again will I have a real tree

3and - last weekend before Christmas. Wouldn't want it up any earlier anyway.

I love real trees, love the smell, but we've had a fake since dd was born as thought crawling/toddling and needles don't go well together, also have a puppy who chews branches this year, but will go back to real soon. When we have a real tree I buy a rooted one and get it about a week before christmas, always try to keep it alive but have never managed more than 6mths yet, BTW tree huggers (of which I am one) its more eco friendly to get a real tree, the tree grows, provides a habitat for wildlife, removes CO2 from air, is cut/dug and replaced by newly planted sapling, and then chipped at local waste centre to become compost, rather than an artificial one made with plastic that will hang around for decades. I know I've got a fake tree, but if you want to be eco friendly go for a real one!

I agree littleb. Ours goes to our local B&Q to be shredded and made into compost. Or I give it to my parents to do the same. It comes from the wildlife centre where it provides wildlife habitat whilst living and income when it's chopped down. They are also very fresh, often chopped down when you choose them.

That sounds like it would work...although, my boys always want the tree up as soon as possible and we are doing well if we get to wait till the 12th of Decembre, lol....hence a real tree wouldn't work....even in a pot
When I grew up we put it up on the day of Christmas Eve, as part of the Christmas day routine....I used to love it, it's one of those typical german traditions I suppose...and doing it that way worked fabulous with any real tree, of course

'Real' trees and warm houses don't tend to go well, and coupled with pet's paws and bare feet it's just more practical to have a 'fake' one inside the house.

I bought a 'real' pot grown tree last year and brought it inside about two weeks before christmas and it started dropping needles straight away, though my house wasn't particularly warm. It went outside the next day and I bought a 'fake' one; much less fuss and hassle and just as pretty, though in the yummy mummy world one would understandbly have a 'real' tree grown in sustainable forests with handmade decorations and homemade festive cookies hanging from it.

Sorry, guilty of the old "only read the OP" here - because I have a toddler that eats everything.

we have a great artificial tree. prelit (no messing about with fairy lights). our neighbour thought it was real last year. you can manipulate the branches into the shape you want and stick it near the radiator without fearing all the needles will fall off. bliss.

3andnomore - as late as possible But that's my philosophy as regards everything Christmassy. Love it at Christmas but not in feckin November!

I bring mine in from the garden as posted earlier and it does drop some needles but I plant it back out and it recovers just fine. It's probably at least a foot taller than it was when we bought it.

Always have a real one - get one of those non drop ones and they keep their needles. I just love the smell of a real tree. DC's also have a real one upstairs that they decorate - as I come over all Monica if anyone even thinks about putting a 'did this in nursery' type thing on MY beautiful tree.
Going to do it on the 15th after we've been to a panto. Feeling Christmassy just thinking about it!!