Christmas trees... fake vs. real?

[bigtiller]

I bought an artificial tree in '75. We have used it every year since and plan on using it for ever.....it's a nice one. The only problem is each branch is stuffed into a hole on the pole. There is about 50 ~ branches and they are color coded. I am color blind so I am not much help for Mrs.tiller when putting it together.

 

[ultrarunner]

In 2003 I bought 9' artificial for Hospital Lobby from Costco as live required fire retardant.

For 7 years it was the tree and then told to retire... I said we could still use it so it became my sole job to set up and decorate and people still give compliments...

Mom and tree picture...

The reason I was suppose to trash the tree is some of the lights stopped working.

 

[DK35vince]

I bought an artificial tree in '75. We have used it every year since and plan on using it for ever.....it's a nice one. The only problem is each branch is stuffed into a hole on the pole. There is about 50 ~ branches and they are color coded. I am color blind so I am not much help for Mrs.tiller when putting it together.

We have a similar artificial tree (lots of branches, color coded holes).
Its a nice one, been using it for 33 years.
Plan to use it many more.

 

[Wagtail]

Fake... a nice 'table-top' model. I also put a fake evergreen garland around the "Wagtail Park" sign at the bottom of my driveway.

Firstly, it's Summer down here and a real tree wouldn't last that long. Secondly, have you seen the evergreen trees that we have here in Aus?! They're either multiple trunk or Norfolk pines... the branches go UP.

 

[dragoneggs]

Growing up... we would always spend Christmas vacation at my parent's cabin, my dad built. I put a few nails in that place and learned my carpentry starting at 7yrs old. Anyways, it was tradition to set out in the woods to find and bring home a tree. I still have that bow saw that is now over 50yrs old!

 

[spitter]

Every year we by a 14" white spruce thats around 8' -10' wide which dominates living space in the house it's a tradition . The biggest one we got was 16' tall 12' wide with a 12" diamater base. That one took alot of trimming to get to fit in the house. I so pictures of them loading it on my truck with a tractor to people and the ask how did that fit in your house . Very carefully !Every year we say were going to get a smaller one . But that never works out. The place we go charges $65 for any tree . I think I get my money's worth.:cool2::drink:

 

[Sigarms]

I love the term fake, such a nice negative meaning LOL

For the last 8 years of so have been using an artificial tree and actually love it and would never go back to a live tree.

I'm old enough that I remember those "fake" trees back in the 70's and 80's, and man were some of them were ugly.

Lights are already set up on the tree, tree goes up fast, and honestly, looks just a nice as any live tree I've seen in my past during Christmas time.

Tree will go up in about another week, and we keep it up until the weekend after Russian christmas.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Single......no tree.

Seems to me, maybe 20 years ago the fad was to buy a living tree, use it in your house for xmas, then plant it.

I did that one year and ended up with a tree in the yard that sort of looked out of place. I wonder if it's still living.

 

[mikester]

When the kids were young I used to enjoy going out into the back forty and topping a nice tree. Fresh tree smells great. When the snow was deep I ended up carrying two kids and dragging a tree. Great cardio. Then the kids lost interest because it was dad's job to get the tree.

These days the tree comes out of the box pre-lit. Fake trees tend to be narrower, take up less floor space, and the cat doesn't want to climb it. I don't miss un-tangling and stringing lights on prickly and sticky trees.

 

[NHBX]

We always had a real tree, usually cut from the woods outback. We stopped putting one up a number of years ago.

I remember when I was a kid one of my aunts had a “fake” silver tree that had a light that sat on the floor and shined up on the tree. It had a color wheel that turned and changed the color of the tree. Modern technology back in the day!