Real Tree, Fake Tree, No Tree, Menorah, Other?

[SonjaMarie]

What do you for the holidays?

We have a small fake tree, that we leave decorated out on our vestibule and just bring it in when we need it. We used to do real trees but not for many years now.

SM

[boswellbaxter]

We put a real tree in the living room and a smattering of lights outside. But the highlight is getting out the tacky "talking" Chrismas tree we bought years ago that sings "Jingle Bells" and wishes everyone a Happy New Year. For a while it graced our kitchen, but last year my daughter hijacked it and put it in her room.

[Amanda]

My family had a fake tree. Husbands family are real tree people. And he insists on a real one! I keep asking for a fake one, so it can be put up at any time, whereas with real one you have to wait for someone to be selling them, he has to go and get his fathers truck to get it. And then when Christmas is over, they are a pain to get rid of (we have green waste bins, but they aren't big enough for a christmas tree), a fake tree we can take down anytime of the day/night. And not to mention the mess!

But he still wants a real tree!

[michellemoran]

Fake tree. All of our ornaments are either white or gold, and the tree ends up looking so beautiful that I don't mind that it's fake. Although I definitely miss the real-tree smell!

[SonjaMarie]

[quote=""michellemoran""]Fake tree. All of our ornaments are either white or gold, and the tree ends up looking so beautiful that I don't mind that it's fake. Although I definitely miss the real-tree smell![/quote]

You could always put one of those pine tree shaped air fresheners on the tree

SM

[EC2]

Fake with fibre optic lights that change colour. Only stands 3ft high which is fine because it fits on the coffee table with enough room to stack the presents round it and doesn't have to be decorated. If my children were still small then I'd do the whole tree decorating thing because it's part of the excitement and magic for them, but I am very happy with my fibre optic. It's sparkly and no fuss!

[Ariadne]

We haven't had a tree up for the past few years since our cats attack it, and we haven't spent Christmas at home in a while. We're either in Florida at my sister-in-law's (it's nice to have relatives in Orlando) or in New England at my parents'.

I have a pointsettia plant and a small menorah sitting on my desk at work. When I was growing up we had a Christmas tree in the living room window, and a menorah (electric) in the family room window downstairs. My parents were of different religions.

[LCW]

Real tree always!! It's one of the things I love about the holidays, decorating the house and the tree. It is a pain with the cats though, esp. the new kitten we got in Jan. He's 20 pounds and is a total bull in a china shop around the house so I'm sure he'll be a challenge to keep off it. We'll have to park the squirt bottle near the tree and hopefully he'll get the message, lol!

As far as what to do with it afterwards, here in the US there are recycling places you can take your tree and it turns into muclh or some other reuseable thing. I've thought of a fake tree and how it might be better for the environment. But maybe it's a wash, there's the negative aspect of tree farms and how they discourage biodiversity but growing tree's also sucks up carbon from the atmosphere. Although the caveat is that how you dispose of your tree determines how fast the carbon is put right back into the atmosphere! Oh well, maybe this can be my environmental splurge, lol!!

[diamondlil]

We have a fake tree. I think we had real trees years and years ago, but the trees that we had are nothing like the trees that look like real Christmas trees!

[michellemoran]

You could always put one of those pine tree shaped air fresheners on the tree

HA! We considered that... Not quite the same