Christmas trees... fake vs. real?

[dragoneggs]

10 to 7 'fake' leading... but it is early.

I bet if we took this poll 20 years ago, 'real' would be leading by the same margin or more.

 

[BoylermanCT]

We have a local goat farm that asks people to drop off their live trees when they are done with them. Apparently the goats love them!

Growing up we had a 9' artificial tree that snowed. It had a large cardboard base that was 6" wider than the tree. It had a pump mounted at the bottom of the base and 1" piping that ran up the tree to the bottom of the angel. The snow was tiny Styrofoam balls about 1/32" in diameter. Every year we had to empty all the glass ornaments as they would fill up with snow. Good memories!

 

[Pixguy]

Real for us. Grew up with artificial but my wife always had real so I adapted. She enjoys the holiday immensely and does a great job decorating without my help. :dance1:

We cut down our own and paid $51 which is the going price around here. The farm we go to is about 4' above a major river so droughts never effect them and the needles last well into January. About 3 years ago that river got blocked up with ice chunks in the spring and flooded the trees farm about 5' above all the tree heights. The trees that winter still had silt from the river and they advised that we hose them down.

 

[MossRoad]

Back in the early to mid 80's my mom developed quite a few breathing problems and they had to switch from real to artificial tree. I hated it, but understood why. They required an 11' tree to hit the peak in their living room. My dad ended up building a 12" high box 4' x 4' square and they got a 10' model. She got it from some company that did commercial displays, and it was quite expensive at the time, around $800. As far as artificial trees go, it was very nice. However, almost all artificial trees seem way to skinny at the base compared to natural trees. The one's we had as kids were easily 8'-9' diameter on the bottom and sometimes over 10'. They were magnificent!

We had VS buses and 7 people. We'd drive up to a place in Sawyer, MI. Mrs. Pratt's house. She had a Christmas tree farm. Any tree was $5. Department stores would come up with flatbeds and get huge ones for displays in Chicago. The VW bus was great. Dad would remove the middle seat and we'd sit on the floor. Once we found a tree, he'd shove it in the rear door and we'd have to climb in under it and ride on the floor all the way home. When we got home, he'd open the side door and drag it out the side! :laughing:

He finally got a luggage rack and then we'd put it up there. Much more pleasant ride home.

The last time we went up there was probably 1980. The trees were getting too tall. My oldest sister's boyfriend climbed up about 10' into a tree and we took the top of it. Dad always made a habit of getting them a couple feet too tall, and he'd saw off the bottom branches to use as decorations around the doors for the holidays.

Good memories. :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

Our city and county provide drop off areas scattered around town and the county where you can drop off old Christmas trees for recycling. They take them to the local organic resources center where they're ground up and converted to free mulch.

 

[Jstpssng]

In an earlier post you'd mentioned that you take your tree down the day after. Got me to wondering...how many find looking at a lit/decorated tree to be "not the same" once Christmas has passed? My parents always left it up until New Years, but if it was up to me I'd do the same as you.

When I was growing up and my parents ran a flower shop, we would be busy right up until everybody else was drinking their Christmas eggnog. We put our tree up later than many, so took it down later.
For me today, living alone I don't have a reason to have a fancy tree, yet can't be a complete Grinch. For a couple of years I decorated a tree which is growing out beside the road, running a 300 foot extension cord made from 12/2 Romex. Then the tree got too tall to decorate.
Last year I decorated a 30 foot tree which my father had planted about 25 years ago on the site of the old family home which he's torn down. Using my bow I put a lines up over the top, then fished strings of solar lights up. This was something I vowed to do ever since he passed away 3 years ago.Tthe colors were purple and white... Alzheimer colors.

 

[wheelbuilder]

I've always had a real tree. My wife never had one until we were married. The house we are in now has a sunroom with a pretty tall ceiling. I've been dying to get a fake tree that was tall enough to suit the sunroom. A real one would dry out in a heartbeat in the heat there. The Mrs. isn't having it. I'm tempted to try and angle for 2 trees, one for each of us.

 

[Ortimber]

We always have a real tree. Until the kids got older, we would drive about 2-3 hrs from home and venture into the Cascade mtn range a find a nice Noble fir. Now, we buy from small local tree farms.

 

[MossRoad]

When I was growing up and my parents ran a flower shop, we would be busy right up until everybody else was drinking their Christmas eggnog. We put our tree up later than many, so took it down later.
For me today, living alone I don't have a reason to have a fancy tree, yet can't be a complete Grinch. For a couple of years I decorated a tree which is growing out beside the road, running a 300 foot extension cord made from 12/2 Romex. Then the tree got too tall to decorate.
Last year I decorated a 30 foot tree which my father had planted about 25 years ago on the site of the old family home which he's torn down. Using my bow I put a lines up over the top, then fished strings of solar lights up. This was something I vowed to do ever since he passed away 3 years ago.Tthe colors were purple and white... Alzheimer colors.

Last year was the first year I had to use the bow and arrow. I'd always been able to throw lights up over the top of the tree from the ground. Tree is pushing 50'. Gonna have to get out there pretty soon and go at it again.

 

[MossRoad]

Whenever I bring in a fresh tree, I cut off 1" from the bottom and put a coupled angle cuts on the edges so it doesn't sit completely flat against the bottom of the stand and can suck up water easier. Then I take a pitcher of extremely hot tap water and pour it in. Why hot? I don't know. I used to work for a wholesale florist, and the first things we'd do when we unpacked shipped flowers was to cut off a couple inches from the bundle stems with a hatchet, turn the hatchet over and smash 2" of the stems, then stick them in tubs of hot water to open them up.

So that's what I do to our Christmas tree. Hot water. For the first week or so, I check it twice a day and top off with hot water as needed. Usually after the first week, it only needs topping off once a day. It almost always lasts a good 4 weeks that way. If it stops taking water, I know it's gonna start dropping needles in a matter of days and it's hopeless to keep watering it after that, so I let it go for 2-3 more days and then it's a gonner. So, we keep it up at least until the 6th pretty easily that way. We've had it well into January in the past.