Quick poll: For those of you who celebrate Christmas (I believe that includes all one or two of my readers), do you favor a real tree, or an artificial one?
I've been leaning torward purchasing an artificial tree, mainly because I usually go crazy with stringing up lights, and it'd be nice if they were already on the tree, but also because I like not having to worry about watering it or it drying out. But the trade-offs of course include having to give up the nice smell, the realness of it all, the fact that a fake tree, at some scale, is obviously fake, and that some day, when my kid(s) is/are old enough to go out, it'd be pretty cool to take them out to get a real tree.
So what's your opinion?
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I like our fake tree for the reasons you just described. No watering or worrying about keeping the lights on and burning down the house. I like that the branches will all take the weight of heavier ornaments and that over time it's cheaper than real trees To mimic the smell of a real tree I get a wreath or decorative branches to bring the pine smell into the house.
ReplyDeleteMy parents had a fake tree for years and there was a time as kids when we really wanted a real tree and those years my parents bought one but in the end we just wanted the tree up longer and the lights on more often than we liked the smell so we opted to return to the artificial one.
If you spend $150-$200 on a fake tree this year, and a real one is $25-$50 then even if you only get ~5 years out of the tree you will not have lost any money and if your son wants a real tree for a few years it's not a big deal.
In the end it's an individual choice of realism vs less hassle. Good luck, neither is a bad choice.
We did the real tree thing for a few years and Paul hated it every year. I don't blame him. He had to do all the work.
ReplyDeleteWe started using fake trees about 6 years ago. My Aunt gave us one and it was really tiny and was kinda falling apart. We got a new one at Target, pre-lit and all 3 years ago. I can't remember how much we spent. It's a 7 foot tree and it came with clear lights. Maybe it was about $200. But I think it was less. Since you are so tall you definitely want to get a tall tree so you can stand next to it in photos and it will still be taller than you.
I say at least browse the fake trees, maybe take some notes on the brands that you like. The colors vary A LOT! Some of them don't even look green!
Good luck!
PS Paul still hates the tree, even though it's fake because he's the only one that can lift the box. It's very very heavy! It's a lot of work. You might want to carve out space in your garage (not so high up in the attic) to hide it for the 11 months you're not using it. I think that's what we finally did this year to avoid lifting to the attic at least.
REAL TREE!!! Can't beat the smell, the experience of picking it out with your kids, the slight deformaties that make it special...and while yes it does take some work...really it is only for about 1 month of the whole year and it is so worth it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the comments. I still can't decide. So for this year we have a real tree. Can't beat that pine smell! And yes, I did complain about the lights, but I have my mother to thank for that (she always put 7 or 8 hundred strings on lights on our trees, and now I think the tree looks poorly lit if I don't put enough lights on it).
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