Real or fake?

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A discussion about Christmas trees, pls.

What do you intend getting? Are you a traditionalist with Nordman Firs or Norway Spruces? Or are you anti the real trees, preferring the trendiness of a 3ft black tinsel affair from Woolworths?

28 days to go. Time for tree talk.

― C J (C J), Monday, 27 November 2006 12:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Last year I got one of the overpriced but very lovely Nordman ones, which hardly dropped any needles at all.

In my back garden, there's Christmas Tree which must be 60ft or so tall - it was the tree which the first owners of our house had, the first year they moved in after it was built. They transplanted it out into the garden afterwards, and it's still there, still going strong!

― C J (C J), Monday, 27 November 2006 12:05 (seventeen years ago) link

We've got one in a pot which we drag in every year. It's on its 4th year. We change the pot every year so it is getting slowly bigger but it's still only about 5 feet high. It starts to drop needles by the time we put it back outside - by which time it's been inside for about three weeks or so - it doesn't seem to like central heating.

I imagine the ecological implications of buying cut trees are not
good, but at least they get recycled into something?

― Ned T.Rifle, Monday, 27 November 2006 12:19 (seventeen years ago) link

We're getting a plastic one. Seems easier. For years we didn't have one but since we have Ophelia now I don't want her to miss out on Xmas (and New Year).

― stevie nixed (stevienixed), Monday, 27 November 2006 12:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Revellers! — Save time next Christmas by positioning this year's tree in an alcove. When the big day is over, use Corn Flakes packets to "wall up" the tree. When next Christmas rolls around, take down the "wall" and hey presto! A tree with all the trimmings.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 12:39 (seventeen years ago) link

It HAS to be real. I normally get a couple of 7-footers - one for the front room and one for the kitchen. Cleaning up all the needles is worth it for the piney smell.

― Dr.C, Monday, 27 November 2006 12:46 (seventeen years ago) link

I haven't had a Christmas three ever since I moved out of home. In the first shared flat I lived we had a decorative juniper in a wooden rack though, some friends of ours had stolen it from a park and brought to us as a housewarming gift. We named the juniper Kaiponen, after a previous tenant who still kept getting bills and other mail. We thought the juniper would then feel like home, since it got mail just like the rest of us. When December came we decided Kaiponen would be our Christmas tree, and put a star on top of him. Out Christmas presents to each other were placed under the rack, and we though Kaiponen was wonderful Christmas tree. Unfortunately we forgot to water him, and by spring we realized Kaiponen had died. We had to move him out in the darkness, lest our neighbours saw we had a juniper stolen from the city park in our flat.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:05 (seventeen years ago) link

i hate plastic ones but i hate killing trees just for christmas. but that heavenly smell...

― GAWD PUNCH (yournullfame), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Get a real one, but with roots attached. And then plant it afterwards.

― masonic boom (kate), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Or get a plastic one, but burn a tree-scented candle to get that christmassy smell!

Surely the manufacturing process to create plastic trees is more harmful to the environment than having a real, recyclable tree? Real trees grow pretty quickly, after all, and are a constantly renewed resource.

― C J (C J), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:16 (seventeen years ago) link

I don't think you can beat a real tree.

I have a lot of fresh greenery in my home at Christmas - I'm lucky to live out in the countryside, with stacks of holly, ivy, mistletoe etc in my garden.

I make these :

http://images.meredith.com/bhg/images/10/p_ANC400611.jpg

to hang in front of the sitting room windows, and bigger verssions to hang either side of the front door.

― C J (C J), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:18 (seventeen years ago) link

"We named the juniper Kaiponen"

NO ONE but Tuomas could have posted that!

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, it's hard to imagine any other ILXor giving Finnish surnames to junipers. Maybe Smith or Johnson or something.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:54 (seventeen years ago) link

i will use the same plastic tree that has been in my family since the 80s. an heirloom, it is (and also quite raggedy. but that is what the gossamer is for!)

― stevie (stevie2), Monday, 27 November 2006 13:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Ned Raggedy

― C J (C J), Monday, 27 November 2006 14:04 (seventeen years ago) link

The fake Tuomas would have named his juniper "Stanley"

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 14:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Accrington Stanley.

― C J (C J), Monday, 27 November 2006 14:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Get a real one, but with roots attached. And then plant it afterwards.

I wish we could but alas no we don't have space to plant it. :-(

― stevie nixed (stevienixed), Monday, 27 November 2006 14:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Plus prob with this is that tree must be v short to fit in room, b/c root-ball is usually like a foot high at least. Although you do get to swathe it in cloth, which creates a nice effect.

Other problem: addition of pine tree to yard! ack

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link

You could creep out at night and plant it on a roundabout instead.

― C J (C J), Monday, 27 November 2006 14:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Fake tree, always. My grandpa was a volunteer fireman for decades and spent too many christmas mornings off taking care of such things.

Big ol' mass of kindling in the living room + cheap electric wiring = not fun.

― kingfish in absentia (kingfish), Monday, 27 November 2006 15:31 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm always home for Christmas, so I don't decorate my apartment at all. The home tree is ALWAYS real, always from the farm down the street that's run by family friends, and always about 12 feet tall. The roping for the stairs and all the wreaths are made at the same place, and the whole house smells delovely, of course. Ooh, only about three weeks now.

― Laurel (Laurel), Monday, 27 November 2006 15:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Ned Raggedy

A vision.

Tree = real. Without exception.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 27 November 2006 15:52 (seventeen years ago) link

We always get a Douglas Fir from a charity that caters to people dealing with addiction.

― Michael White (Miguelito), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:01 (seventeen years ago) link

Douglas firs are so stiff and stickery, though, MW!

I think the Prince of all Xmas trees is the White Pine, with its soft willowy needles and milky sheen

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't remember what the other choice is here, tracer, but it's even less appealing.

My birthday is ten days before X-mas so we have a combination birthday party/tree trimmer.

― Michael White (Miguelito), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:07 (seventeen years ago) link

we did this often when I was a kid. one year my grandparents gave me an artifical tree for a bday present. DUD!

― Ms Misery (MsMisery), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

We always get a real tree. The tree farm we go to was started by a couple in memory of their daughter after she was shot dead by her insane ex-boyfriend. In church.

― I Am Curious (George) (Slight Return) (Rock Hardy), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:10 (seventeen years ago) link

white pine—
http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu/research/leaves/images/white_pine.jpg

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/christmas/images/pin0060k.jpg

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:13 (seventeen years ago) link

I want this tree!
:)

― Ms Misery (MsMisery), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link

OMG

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:17 (seventeen years ago) link

LOL I THOUHGT THIS THREAD WAS ABOUT BOOBIES

― nklshs (nklshs), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

I used to go live tree, but this year I'm kicking it with a 3 ft plastic tree with fiberoptic lights, fluctuating christmas!

― nklshs (nklshs), Monday, 27 November 2006 16:59 (seventeen years ago) link

In the live and learn category: One year I cut one out in the woods and it smelled just like cat urine. I can't heartily recommend this variety of fir. For the last 15 years or so we have put a real tree on our front porch which can be seen clearly through the living room and kitchen windows. It stays up / lights on until winter is over. No ornaments; just lights.

― Wench (jim wentworth), Monday, 27 November 2006 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

We are often away over Christmas, and so a real tree just seems a little pointless, hence our trusty little fake one which gets so laden with decorations that you can't actually tell what's under all the baubles and bows. We always had a real one when I was a kid, even though my ridiculously-placed birthday meant it didn't go up until 6 days before Christmas.

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:32 (seventeen years ago) link

always had a fake one growing up, always had a real one when i lived with my ex. one year we bought a live tree, an alberta spruce, because we didn't want to kill a tree for a hoiday. then we went and planted it on some property her mother owned on a lake outside of jackson, michigan.

since i've been living alone again i don't bother. i know it's christmas time, i don't need another empty symbol of a holy day for a religion i renounced.

― otto midnight (otto midnight), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I love real trees. I love the smell and how there's always kind of a bare patch you have to turn to the wall. As for what kind of tree, other family members who have stronger preferences pick, but for the last couple years it's just been whatever's left in the nearest lot 3 days before Christmas.

― Maria, Monday, 27 November 2006 18:38 (seventeen years ago) link

We're never home at Christmas, either, so we don't get a tree but I always buy a wreath to hang up inside so our house smells good.

― Lance Rock (pullapartgirl), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link

We haven't had room for a real tree for several years. We hung ornaments on the ficus one year, and last year Mr. Jaq brought home a scraggley little tree in a pot which did not survive the affection of the cats. This year, I want one of the 18" tall rosemary "trees" our local hardware stores are carrying. And we'll put a real wreath on the door and drape some greenery down the banisters maybe.

Most of our ornaments are brightly colored plastic bugs, sea creatures and banana slugs from Archie McPhee. In the past, the angel was an inflatable penguin with strap-on wings.

― jaq (jaq), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:42 (seventeen years ago) link

It'd be cooler if you used a penguin with a strap-on.

― Ms Misery (MsMisery), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Fake.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Our real ones were great for a few years when I was younger and my big brother used to work for the Forestry Commission. We had a teensy wee real one a couple of years back that was a present from my boss, but it died really quickly when we planted it out our back garden :-/ I usually have a couple of real poinsettas though.

Once, when my parents were between houses, they put fairy lights and tinsel on my dad's biggest golf trophy. Weirdos.

― ailsa_xx (ailsa_xx), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:54 (seventeen years ago) link

She fell off the tree when we tried it, MsMis.

― jaq (jaq), Monday, 27 November 2006 18:56 (seventeen years ago) link

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