Fresh or artificial?

[B-flat]

This year "no tree was harmed" for my Christmas Tree. I put up an artifical tree.
 
What kind of tree will you have? If you're camping during Christmas, will you have a tree?
 
If you don't put up a tree at all just say "None" if you want to. Some people have their own reasons for not having a tree.

[Miller Tyme]

Artificial. I love real Christmas trees, but the last one we had left such a mess I was still vacumming up needles in February.:mad:

 
Besides, with the new dog, I don't need her chewing on the needles, then getting sick and throwing up everywhere. She loves to chew on anything..shoes, clothes...:rolleyes:

[kathybrj]

Fresh, every year. We usually get it within 5-6 days of Christmas and leave it up until the Epiphany in Early January.

[wiininkwe]

We always get fresh, but this year I'm vacillating with my choice.   It would be soo much easier to get fake.   We'll see, I still have time to make up my mind.  Our house is small, and bringing in the tree takes careful planning, usually a piece of furniture has to leave the room for the tree.  (and we have to find someplace else to put it)   We don't put the tree up till 7 days before Christmas, and take it down on New Years day because that's all the longer we can stand to have the whole house disrupted, LOL

T

[Miss-Teri]

I prefer artificial.  Fresh trees just make me wish I was out camping...  
-Teri

[MommaMia]

We have always had fresh.  Frasier fir or Balsam are my two favorites.

This year, being new to FL, we had such sticker shock when we went to get our tree yesterday.  In CT we paid $35 for a tree... any type, any size, cut your own.  At the "tree stand" yesterday, 10 foot trees started at $150!  The one we really liked was $245!  Yikes!  We settled for a 7 foot tree for $80.  

I love having a real tree but now that we will be travelling back to CT every year just after Christmas, we'll have to consider how to keep the tree watered while we are away, so next year we may get an artificial one.

One downside to artificial is the lack of smell... It makes it so much more Chistmassy when you smell the pine smell.  Another downside to artificial is where will we store it when it's not in use.  No basement here, no attic either!

[brainpause]

Although I love the smell of a real tree, the fire hazard scares me. We use an artificial one on the inside, and we also have lights on a large tree next to the house.
 
Larry

[Acts 2:38 girl]

We get a real tree every year.  At our old house we had a 17' vaulted ceiling in the foyer where the tree went.  The tallest tree we ever got was 13' high.  It actually had to fit through the blades of the ceiling fan!  Now we have normal ceilings, so we will have to buy a 5-6" tree!  
  Just a normal pine tree for me, thanks!  One year we made the mistake of getting a blue spruce.  BIG mistake - by the time DH finally got the tree up he was bleeding!  Decorating it wasn't even fun because there was the potential to draw blood from the pine needles!  I'll never get a tree like that again!

[angelsmom10]

WHAT TREE?? -- What's that?  We haven't been able to set up our tree for about 3 years now.  It's just big and we have no room.  Since the kids are grown, it's just been a little on the pointless side to move 1/2 the living room to the basement to be able to set up our tree,
 
YES I DO MISS IT AND NO WE ARE NOT A BAH-HUMBUG -- although we do feel it sometimes.  
 
This past January, I did purchase a fiber optic christmas tree off ebay, but have not even gotten it out yet to see what it looks like.
 

[Michicampers]

We get a fresh tree every year - one of our favorite family traditions is picking out the tree (hoping to do that tonight   .) I don't mind cleaning up after it - we have wood floors so it's pretty easy. We do set up a few small artificial trees and garlands in other parts of the house, but we love having a real tree in the living room to decorate each year.

Cindy - we lived in Florida several years ago, and I remember how pricey the trees could be down there. Made me think of one of the funniest things we ever saw - one year, many moons ago, shortly after we were married, DH and I picked out a basic tree in the Albertson's parking lot. We carried it out to our Mazda 626 (small sedan). DH popped the trunk, quickly slid the 7 or 8' tree all the way in, and closed the trunk. There was an elderly couple watching us and I thought their teeth would fall out - I don't think they had any idea how we fit that tree into our little car. The windows were tinted, so they couldn't see what was going on inside the car, but we had the back seat folded down (I think that option must have been fairly new at the time). I will never forget the shocked look on their faces - it was priceless.

[campingboaters]

We will be getting a real tree.  We make it a holiday event to go cut our own tree down.  It lasts longer and I get to see what the tree will look like when it's all spread out - vs. guessing at the corner lot.  We tend to get blue spruces just because I like the way they look with the ornaments hanging below/in between the branches and the branches are stronger to hold our heavy ornaments.  You do have to be prepared for working with a blue spruce and use leather gardening gloves to set the tree up and put the lights on it.  Maybe I'm just used to it, but it's worth it to me to have that kind of tree.  
 
Our trees tend to only be 5-6 feet tall and we pay about $60 for the privileage to cut our own.  Plus, hubby loses his recliner to fit the tree in the living room so the tree last about 2-3 weeks before he can't be without his chair anymore!

[oldmoose]

Quite a number of years ago we bought an artificial tree for $200 when a real tree was $75. I figured that after 3 years it was paid for. The first year we set it up, our children never noticed it was artificial. We've been empty nesters for a while, but still decorate for the season, especially outside. This year a "G" scale train will run.

Moose

[Camperroo]

We've always had a real tree.  Our living room has a pretty bay window with 8 foot ceiling so we like to get a nice tall tree.  However over the last few years we've noticed our DS having some allergy problems with the tree and every Christmas develops bronchitis, which I think is from the tree being in the house for a few weeks.  I also notice that for the first few days my throat feels kind of itchy and swollen.  So we've decided this year to buy an artificial tree and relieve the allergy symptoms.  We promised the kids we'd buy a small tree to put out on our deck so they can decorate a real tree too!  From what I've seen some of these newer articificial trees look extremely real and not spindly!

[Gone-Camping]

I've always used a real tree, but ever since moving in with Grand-Ma that has changed. She had a real one first year I was here, but her dog tried to "use it" several times.
 
She insisted on the artifical tree she had in the garage the following year, even though the dog is older and wiser! GrandMa passed away just before Christmas last year, so we used her tree then too, but we're still debating on whether a real tree or use GrandMa's old tree again this year. Decisions decisions....

[tlhdoc]

Although I love the smell of a real tree, the fire hazard scares me. We use an artificial one on the inside, and we also have lights on a large tree next to the house.
 
Larry

Larry they do sell a spray to make the tree almost fire proof.  2 bottles at Sam's Club are $23.

We have a real tree each year.  DH lives a pine with long needles and I like the fullness of a fir tree.  A few years back we found the perfect type of tree.  The southwestern white pine.  Long needles and very full.  The tree farm we get our trees from each year have been growing them for about 10 years.  Each year they have more of them, but if you don't pick your tree early the run out of them.  The other good thing about the trees is that they hang on to their needles for a long time.