Real or Fake

[Nyboy]

Picked up my Christmas tree last night, I love the smell of pine it gives the whole house. Fake trees have come along way looks wise,but I will always do real. What do you put up?

 

[so lucky]

Mrs Cheapskate here: I've been using the same fake tree for about 22 years. I do love the smell of fresh pine or spruce, as well, but I generally bring in some fresh branches to decorate a mantel or tabletop with, rather than buy a tree.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Growing up, I'd go out and cut a cedar tree in a pasture on our farm. I found out if I cut a fairly large one I could get a really nice shaped tree by cutting the top 5' to 6' out and dry the bottom for a decent cedar post. That cedar had nice thick limbs and took the ornaments well. To me a Christmas tree should smell like cedar. Spruce, fir, and pine just don't cut it.

When I lived in Suburbia, we bought a cut tree, a spruce or fir. My wife was a city girl. She grew up with spruce or fir. Cedar for a Christmas tree!!! Ridiculous!!! That's not how her parents did it!!! I find that the family traditions usually come from the wife's side. Women fight dirty and it is just not worth the hassle.

After we moved here we started buying a living tree, again spruce or fir. After Christmas we'd plant the tree outside. We've created a nice wind break on the downwind side with those. Nice habitat for some birds too. But now that we spend Christmas with our granddaughter, we don't have any tree.

 

[Stubbornhillfarm]

We have a real tree. You can still get a very nice one for about $30.00 here at the "cut your own" tree farms.

 

[ninnymary]

For years we would buy a fresh noble fir tree for $85. Well, I finally got tired of spending so much money, so a couple of years ago Costco had the fake ones for $300. This year, I've recouped my cost.

I did feel bad when my 2 1/2 yr. old granddaughter smelled it and said "delicious"!

Mary

 

[897tgigvib]

Being alone I usually don't have a Christmas tree. But when I lived in Montana I used to go and cut a Rocky Mountain Cedar. Those are really Juniper, and they have a strong aroma. It has to be a good one because some can smell like cat pee. One of the best ones was when I had a gal living with me, (world's meanest woman, but that's another story), and her daughter's teacher came over with gifts for her. So Nikki and I went to a creek near Helena and I selected a beauty that Nikki really liked. When I trimmed the bottom branches it fairly oozed sap and the aroma was Christmas.

Up here there are folks who drive the dirt roads up Hull or Sanhedrin to get a Silver Tipped Fir. I'm not sure if the geneticists have yet decided the relations of the Firs, but I really think the Silver Tips are a separate Genus from the Doug Fir, maybe even their own family. Every time I look it up the sites give different taxonomies for them. Same thing with Junipers and Cedars.

Gymnosperms are a very vital part of the plant groups. They take sunlight, and among other things, create that thick and heavy sap so filled with the products of their DNA. In a way, they are perfect reminders of life's meanings.

Yes, I still communicate with them.

The lake has 100% humidity over it, a white misty cloud that's settled in the basin, the sky just dripping rain that condenses right at face level. This is very cool!

 

[bobm]

Our 3 kids were the Denis the Menace types, so a real christmas tree didn't have a chance to stand for very long. To solve this problem, I started to get a fairly large ,any type conifer branch that I could find and hang it upside down from the ceiling, decorate it with lights and ornaments out of their reach . Now, they have kids of their own... PAYBACK ! They also hang a large branch from the ceiling too. Now that the kids are out of the house, we have a small artificial tree.

 

[curly_kate]

I got a fake one from my parents several years ago, so I'd been using that one. Prior to that, I would put up real ones, but DH (aka Scrooge) hated how there would be pine needles all over the carpet for months. We're in a trailer right now, and there's no room for the fake one, so I've bought live table top trees the past 2 years. Once the new house is built, I'm going back to the real ones! Nothing beats it! Plus, we have wood for the fire once Christmas is over.

 

[Smart Red]

F A K E ! (Head hanging in shame)

Spouse didn't like the trouble and mess of a real tree. Don't understand why since he doesn't decorate nor un-decorate the tree. Perhaps that's the real answer. He doesn't have to do Christmas at all that way. Hum-m-m-m-m?

Love, Smart Red

 

[curly_kate]

Smartred - sounds like my hubby!