Christmas Trees

[MIKE R]

I put a real one on the front step. I have a small field with Christmas trees that I get them from. I like the idea of using a Maple tree as I am a syrup producer.

[tcreeley]

We us real- balsam fir - local tree. We have chopped down spruce and put that up. The question now is buy or chop one in the woods. We buy- tired of dragging it in. It is always bundled and slips under the tonneau cover on the truck.

[Western]

Like lots of folks our age, we used real trees for many years, but not in the last 20 years. In fact, we used the same artificial tree for a lot of years, but I bought the wife a new one this year.

Bird, I wouldnt know where to put the water if I had a fake tree

[wngsprd]

I've seen some beautiful artificial trees, but we've always cut a real one off of our place - some very pretty cedars (and some that were a bit odd - this year's tree was 15 ft tall, and was 10 ft wide until I trimmed it - but it looks great now, so my wife says, which is all that counts). Also, we've cut some balsam firs and scotch pines I planted years ago, but the deer rubbed the bark off the rest and I need to plant more.

[MikeFarm]

Hiya

Real tree or fake .... a fake one takes more plastic and metal materials to make but gets reused; a real one means a CO2 absorbing tree is killed and disposed of when it could have grown up to be a nice table or bed. To stop the needles on a real tree making a mess spray it liberally with lacquer. or clear wood sealant.

Mike

[MossflowerWoods]

When I lived in Oregon, every year we'd go cut our own at a U-Cut tree farm the day after Thanksgiving, and we'd not take it down until New Years or the day after. Most of them were 10' plus.The wildest one I had was a sequoia, smelled amazing, and looked awesome, but decorating the tree tore my hands up and left me with a rash for days... We moved to California in 1999 and the stale dead trees on the lots were horrible, I only used once, and they were scary dry. We went fake and that was it... Our first fake tree, a 7' the lights all finally died after last Christmas and I recycled it. The big 10' one is in its box, because I have 7'4" ceilings (grrrr) and cannot put it up...

This year I bought a small Colorado Spruce from Lowes, it is in a 5 gallon pot and we will plant him in the yard after Christmas. It is a cute little bugger, I'll take a pic later and share it.

Be well,
David

[Bird]

When I was a kid, Dad always just cut down a little wild cedar tree each year, as some of you have done. But then my parents moved to Anchorage in October, 1965. They also had my 5 year old niece at the time. They said that Christmas, they drove out to the edge of town, waded through the snow, and cut down a small tree for Christmas.

However, Mother said they were out driving around after the Spring thaw and went out to see where they had cut down that Christmas tree, and found the snow had been even deeper than they thought. They had topped a tree in a city park. She said she guessed if they'd gotten caught, that would have been an expensive Christmas tree.

[Western]

This year I bought a small Colorado Spruce from Lowes, it is in a 5 gallon pot and we will plant him in the yard after Christmas. It is a cute little bugger, I'll take a pic later and share it.
Be well,
David

we have considered the same thing, but doubt a Blue spruce or Christmas tree type trees would survive in our climate, or at least grow well.

[clemsonfor]

Blue spruce is a pretty tree.

[Mickey_Fx]

When I lived in Oregon, every year we'd go cut our own at a U-Cut tree farm the day after Thanksgiving, and we'd not take it down until New Years or the day after. Most of them were 10' plus.The wildest one I had was a sequoia, smelled amazing, and looked awesome, but decorating the tree tore my hands up and left me with a rash for days... We moved to California in 1999 and the stale dead trees on the lots were horrible, I only used once, and they were scary dry. We went fake and that was it... Our first fake tree, a 7' the lights all finally died after last Christmas and I recycled it. The big 10' one is in its box, because I have 7'4" ceilings (grrrr) and cannot put it up...

This year I bought a small Colorado Spruce from Lowes, it is in a 5 gallon pot and we will plant him in the yard after Christmas. It is a cute little bugger, I'll take a pic later and share it.

Be well,
David

Dave, you sound like me. Over the last 40 yrs our favorite tree has always been a Sequoia. We'd buy them from a nearby tree farm but we did have a number of them at the house. Here in Wa they are all but impossible to find. These are not the giant sequoia found in N Calif. Here is a an example of this variety. The ones outside were something like 70' tall. When cutting these trees, if you leave a limb or two at the base, in a few yrs that limb will have turned upwards and a few yrs more and you have another tree suitable for Christmas.

We did give our son a giant sequoia about 15 yrs ago and now it is something like 35-40 ft tall. The needles on the local sequoia and the Calif Giant are quite different. Son lives a couple blocks away and has both varieties so they do well here.