Once upon a time I thought that I would never have a fake tree, but I did get tired of dealing with a real tree, and we bought an awesome artificial tree at Costco. Our tree is a 6.5 foot pre-lit slim tree, and we place it on one of our end tables. We don't have to move all of the furniture to make room for it as we did for the real trees. And it turns out that many people suffer health problems relating to mold and allergies. My oldest son would get watery eyes, stuffed up, etc. when we had a real tree.

Here is a link that might be useful: Christmas tree syndrome

4 ft. fake in the dining room ... fresh Noble Fir in the keeping room. Only have to move a bench and a chair to make room for either. Bought the fake cause it was a steal. Still love fresh, so will continue that tradition as long as we can.

Real. I keep threatening to go fake, but I love the smell of the balsam and we always have a good time choosing the tree. My tree this year is a riot -- it has really wide hips.

I bought the large tree at Costco and it is a constant reminder to myself that just because it looks small in Costco, doesn't mean it's small. If that tree was an inch taller, it wouldn't have fit inside my house. I thought because we have an old house with high ceilings that we NEEDED the big one. No tree top at our house anymore.

Thanks to Jack chewing up a living room chair, we didn't have to move anything to make room for the tree. We're not talking about the hole that will be left when the tree comes down. LOL!

Real. Like ded, love the smell. Also, don't want something I have to store. Our city recycles the trees for mulch and I figure I am supporting our local businesses when I buy.

Fake. Like Terriks, years ago, I couldn't imagine why anyone would willingly have an artificial Christmas tree. Every year we took my DD to tag our tree. It would then be cut and picked up the first Saturday in December. I loved that pine fragrance. I loved the trip to the tree farm, yada yada.

What I didn't love were the needles everywhere, the pets trying to take a drink out of the tree stand, ugh. When we had new hardwood laid, I had a change of heart and purchased my first artificial tree.

Then, the prelit trees became available, and the rest is history. No fuss, no muss. I hang a Yankee Car Jar - pine scent in the back of the tree and burn a nice soy pine scented candle. Perfection. For us, that is.

Another bonus, IMHO, is that if I'm going to be home, I can light my tree in the morning and leave it lit all day, enjoying it as I walk in and out of the LR. No worries of fires from dried out branches, etc. With the real tree I had to limit how long the tree was lit, had to keep checking the lights to be sure they weren't getting too hot, as well as whether or not the tree was drying out.

Since the tree is "my thing", it was just another thing to do at holiday time. The mixing up the stuff to "feed" it, and continually monitoring how much water the real tree was drinking. With holiday baking and such, our oven is hot for quite a few days after we trim the tree, so most times our tree dried out by Christmas, and was out the door within that next week. Really, I was ready for it to go because I tired of picking up needles and yelling at my pets to stay away from the tree water.

Now, I can leave the tree up longer if I so choose. One year I decorated 3 trees that didn't come down until February, and only then because I was getting my youngest lab pup on short notice, lol. Had to child, I mean puppy-proof.

Ours is real- tradition I guess. It's a fun thing to go out and pick out the tree. There are 2 types of trees available here mostly- noble and frasier. The noble is easier to decorate because of the way the branches are, but they're a lot more expensive. We usually get the frasier.

Fake. If I want to smell the greenery, I can go outside to our row of evergreens and smell 'em. lol.

We used to do real, but OK is notorious for dry air in the winter, even when it snows. Our tree would dry up so fast even though it drank a lot of water. I also didn't like putting lights on them.

Fakes have come so far these days I doubt I ever get a real tree again.

Another reason I would never have previously considered a fake tree is because I never saw on that looked real. But the newer ones can really fool you. Other than being perfectly formed that is. No misshapen bald spot that needs to be put against the wall.

We've switched to fakes a few years back. I just can't figure how they claim real is 'greener'...do they not realize they're farmed and take up a LOT of resources to farm them? And transporting them?? Oregon trees get shipped to California and Mexico!

For scent, I use fresh garlands, wreaths and boughs...THAT is much greener and sustainable.

Real. DH is Mr. Christmas and would never have a fake tree. I'd love a fake one (since I'm the one who cleans up needles everyday)!

When I was single and lived alone, I had an artificial tree as I often went to visit my mother for about a week.

Since I've been with DH, we have real. 1) They are grown here and,therefore, pretty inexpensive. This year we bought our tree through a fundraiser and got an 8' beautiful, pretty symmetrical frasier fir for $40. 2) I love the smell. 3) We have pretty much nowhere to store a tree.

We've not really had any problems with the trees dropping lots of needles. Maybe because they are more local, and we water it every day.

MIL did get us a 4' fiberoptic, but this year it's not out. I would set that one up in the kitchen.

Real and I go chop it down myself. Grew up in a tiny house and was allergic to evergreen trees...so we had one of those pretty small aluminum trees when they came out in the 1950's. I envied my friends with big, real trees...so I outgrew my allergy, married a forester and spent years going into the mountains (here in Pacific NW) with a big group of friends and tromping through the snow to cut one - high up so we could get Nobles. Built a big bonfire, tailgated, warmed with spirits, liquid and holiday. Great memories. Hubby died a number of years ago, but I now go to a tree farm and cut my own. I'd rather not have one than have a fake one.

Real, always. Grew up with a fake tree (I've mentioned it before, the fab 60s aluminun with magic color wheel). Our first married Christmas I got a glorious 8' tall Frasier fir and I've never looked back. Wouldn't have a fake. Well, for now. Who knows how I'll feel in a few years. But it's part of our holiday tradition to go out Thanksgiving weekend, pick the tree from the same place, decorate it with my fave ornaments etc etc.

We have a real tree, always have, always will. I don't care about the mess, the goo you get on your hands or the joy of finding pine needless hidden somewhere six months into the next year. I'm a proud traditionalist and the one and only time we had a fake tree is after we moved to the mid west and discovered that when you wait till mid December to get your tree, it's more than likely going to be frozen. :c) (obviously we weren't in SoCal anymore)

My reasons for having a real tree aren't based on anything but preference. My favorite Christmas thing is to go on the hunt for "the right tree" and I looove the way the house smells once it's up. The one year we didn't have the real tree, I still had a pine wreath for the smell but it wasn't the same. That year I would have been just as happy not having a tree at all and saving the money we spent on the box of plastic.

I know things change and old traditions slowly morph into new ones. Usually I'm okay with that but Christmas is the one holiday I don't want our traditions to change unless of course it's to add something new to the traditions we already have.

Back to real! Tried a fake pre-lit one for 4 years. It was a pain to assemble and to store. I hated the thing so much that I didn't even put it up last year. I'd much rather clean up needles.

A darling little fake "tree" -- which DH found at a local thrift store and it turned out to be the top bit of a much larger fake tree! For the total price of $2.99! LOL! :)

Put on a few lights myself, added a few pine cones and a couple of ornaments from Smith & Hawken at Target -- and wedged it into an old stone crock -- and placed it on the windowseat in the kitchen.

real!! i love real trees, as i love real cut flowers and real houseplants!! some artificial can look nice, but i really just prefer real!!

i love the process of getting a tree and i love the variety every year!! except for the ornaments, our tree is never exactly the same!

i do have a fake tree that i bought on clearance one year after christmas to put in the upstairs hallway--some years i put it up, some i don't- it's ok and i like the fact that's it's prelit, but i can't imagine not having a real 'main' tree!

Fake. Real trees play havoc with my allergies and are not practical for us because of the time we have a tree up. We have one full size "slim" tree out and two smaller ones. We use fresh greenery (evergreen/holly/magnolia) in our outside decorations.

I have another small tree (4 ft), and was thinking next year I might just do small trees??? We'll see!!

tina

Fake. DS #2 used to get sick with allergies, bronchiolitis, etc., as a baby. For his first Christmas, when he was only 4 months old, we had to have a nebulizer delivered to our house on Christmas Eve. Similar situation the next year, and someone suggested he might be allergic to the tree (which was real every year until then). The next year, we bought a fake tree and he was fine! Now, who knows... could have been coincidence, but we have had a fake tree ever since. That baby is now 16 and only has very mild, occasional allergy issues, but we have never gone back to the real tree. However, after taking our sad looking fake tree out of the box this year, DH proclaimed that after this year, it's going in the garbage, and next year we're going to try a real tree.

Only fake trees here. I'm mildly allergic to the real ones, but still would prefer an artificial one. Working in x-ray and ER for many years, I saw lots of people come in during the Christmas Season that has stepped on a dried pine needle and had to have it dug out. Not a fun thing to go through! I also like putting up my trees the weekend of Thanksgiving and leaving them up through Twelfth Night. With our low humidity out here and 3 inside fireplaces, I'd be too paranoid to have real ones.
I love my artificial ones and add real pine cones to them for the scent and just to look a bit more realistic. But, I have to admit that there's nothing like the scent of a real Christmas tree!
Lynn

Real. Can't live without one.

Haven't had a tree in years but it was always a real tree. I was a "tree up the week before Christmas and down on New Years Day" person so as long as it was kept watered the needle fall was not too bad. I really don't understand the fake tree thing. To me one of the best parts of having a Christmas tree is going out and checking out the trees (either in the woods or at the tree farm) and finding one that looks right to you. Different every year. I like that.

Fake. We never had a real tree growing up either as Mom wasn't a fan of the needles.

I'd have to look up what to do with a real one. I don't know how much water to give and it sounds like a pain to get rid of at the end of the season. DH carries ours to the attic.

Our fake tree looks real and if I had to buy a new one, I'd drop some dough to get another realistic tree. However, when the prelit lights go on ours (hopefully never) I'm determined to remove them and string new ones. I can't see pitching the tree.

Shee, that's sad you never experienced a real tree. I hated when my parents bought their fake tree. I swore I'd never have one. And the only reason we have the one in the dining room is because it was too great a deal to pass up. We still put up a fresh tree. Hope we can for many years to come. Watering is no big deal. And if you don't have carpet neither are needles.

My big sister and moi 1954 (fresh tree)...

{{gwi:617706}}

DH is so allergic to pine trees that a real one would severe punishment. He gets allergy shots weekly and has developed nasal polyps. Not fun for him, poor guy. Still we have them on our property.

I had real trees my entire life, even with DH but his allergies are so severe now that it isn't even an option. That and my heater vent convinced me I should go fake.

Have lemons? Make lemonade!

Natal - Ah, it never bothered me and I don't feel like I missed out on anything. We were so thrilled to decorate it.

You were a cutie.

After looking at all the cool silver trees on Retrorenovation, I would love one. We never had one, but lots of friends did. Still don't really have the space for another full tree or storage.

The tinsel can be risky to pets I believe.

Here is a link that might be useful: Retro renovation

aww...cute picture!

the last couple of years we have actually bought our tree during the week after thanksgiving... i never take it down until at least a week after new years. as long as you keep it watered every day and never let it 'go dry' (i read years ago that using hot water allows the tree to drink up the water more easily...) frazier firs can retain most of their needles a long time! i keep our house around 67 during the day and cooler at night and close the 'vents' to the heat register near the tree... and, of course, i don't light a bunch of candles near the tree!

when i vacuum up the few needles on the ground during the season, they collect in the bag and then release the pine scent every time i vacuum! lol

the trash men pick up trees(to recycle) a few times after christmas-through mid jan- so we just drag it out to the curb.

We have had either or throughout our lives. When living in Southern California, real was just too expensive so we had fake for a while. On moving to NM, we had real for a while but I was always nervous because it was so near the woodstove so now we have fake again, actually 2 fake trees. Dh was not enamored of going into town to get the real one. We actually have 2 fake ones now and the beauty of it is even if we are having an off year financially, I do not have to worry about not having a Christmas tree.

Real or not at all, as far as I am concerned. I'm currently doing not at all.

I don't see someone as missing out by not having a real tree. We always did growing up, but honestly I have never missed not having one. (We have had a few live ones as a married couple.) Also, unless we used a tree you could plant (which we do not need), I don't like cutting a tree just for me to enjoy at Christmas. I realize they can be recycled, although many are not, but it seems a waste.

Natal - I've never heard you mention your sister - looks like a big age difference between you and her. I have a brother 10 years younger than me. Love the clown!!

Tree farms are a crop just like any other. We're fortunate to live in an area where recycling is as easy as placing the tree curbside. Here they're used for coastal restoration and mulch.

My sister's 12 years older. She left home when I was 7. We didn't really get to know each other until I went to live with her after high school.

Real - for now. This is the first year that I was tempted to get a fake tree just because it takes so long to put the darn lights on the real one! But, after it's up I'm always so glad we have a real tree. To me it feels different in the room - because it's "alive". Of course, things do change and someday I may want an artificial tree - like if the kids don't come home for Christmas. At this point, I think I would settle for a smaller real tree than an artificial one. I've had a real tree my entire life so it is Christmas to me.