Do you buy a live Christmas tree or a cut one?  

I had to have an artificial tree for many years myself. My youngest son was severely allergic to the real ones. They make some awesome fake ones these days! You can't tell the difference unless you're right up at the tree!

They're also so much more convenient and MUCH better on the wallet! Those real trees are getting expensive! That's one reason I want a live tree this year. We have the room to plant it so I'll at least get my money's worth by keeping it alive and growing on our property. Then, next year, I can decorate it outside and buy a new, live tree!

When the trees are in plentiful supply, I see no reason to cut some down. New ones will grow to replace them. I've just seen too many Christmas tree carcasses on the curbside waiting to the truck to pick them up. At least I know that they are taken to a plant where they put them through a wood chipper and they become mulch, therefore they're useful again.

I just hate to see them die so soon! Even with daily watering, they dry out so fast!

Thank you for all the tips for having a live tree in the house. I also know to dig the hole where the tree will be planted before the ground freezes. I'll probably be doing that in the next week or so.

I already bought some of those LED Christmas lights. They're more expensive, but they last sooooo much longer than the other kind and they are VERY cool, they don't heat up anywhere near as much as the old kind of mini-lights.

I'm ready for it!

Those are fine, too! Some of them look like the real thing until you get up real close to them. I've seen a lot of fake palm trees with lights on them, too. I don't know exactly when that trend started but I think it looks pretty cool.

Your pine trees sound like my pine trees. They're all kind of skimpy. Well, we do have one growing beside our house that's really full and thick. I put lights on it but I'm not about to cut it down and bring in inside!

I had an artificial tree almost the entire time my youngest son lived with me. We found out when he was about 4 years old that he was allergic to practically everything, including evergreen trees. So, I had to stop buying the real ones and get an artificial one.

Actually, it was much more convenient because it was always there. You didn't have to go freezing your buns off to buy a real one every year, nor did you have to spend that money each year! Real trees are expensive!

My husband loves real trees so I got rid of the artificial one. I'm going to insist on a live tree from now on, though. We have the room to plant them after Christmas and, if we're going to spend that much money on a tree each year, we should have something that will live awhile!

Sure, thing, Chevee! I plan to take a picture of our pavilion once I finish decorating it. This is the first year I've done it and hope to make it something the neighbors will really like. I'll take a picture of the tree we get this year because it will be a live one. I'll get a picture of it in our house, then after we've planted it outside.



I know people who no longer put up a tree so you're not alone. I probably wouldn't do it myself but my husband loves them. Christmas is still Christmas without a tree! When my mother was on her own, after my father died but before she remarried, she had a little 2 foot tall tree that she'd put out each year. It was so cute! She didn't want to bother with a large tree and this little artificial one fit the bill. It almost looked like Charlie Brown's little tree.

Cats can be real pests with Christmas trees! I remember a cat we had when I was young who would climb up the trunk to the very middle of the thing! It was impossible to get him out of there! He knocked the tree over one year! After that, my mother would always tie a heavy string around the middle of it and attached it to the wall on both sides. I can still see that string! LOL

Of course, all the cats I've had since then would play with the ornaments hanging near the bottom until they fell off the tree and broke. I started leaving the bottom of the tree bare. It helped... some.

I agree! I used to do that before I was married with kids. They're so much fresher when you cut them down yourself.

Getting a cut tree right now would be kinda nice because there are so many to choose from. I doubt the selection will be there next week, though.

I guess hubby and I should get out and buy that live tree soon, too. As far as I've seen, there's only one nursery selling them around here!

I had an artificial one for years myself. My youngest son was diagnosed with allergies when he was about 4 years old and one of them was from evergreen trees. So, I had to buy an artificial tree. They have two very good qualities... you don't have to go out and freeze your buns off then lug the thing home each year, nor do you have to shell out all that money for a real tree! Those things are expensive! Oh! And you don't have the problem with pine needles all over your house after the holidays! LOL

Oh, that's lovely, jhoannejoj! What a beautiful memory! I would give anything to have one such as yours to remember back on. That tree your mom made had more significance than any real or store-bought tree could ever have!

I would have loved to have been there to see you experiencing your first real tree, though. To be able to experience that kind of awe in our adulthood is so very rare!

Enjoy your next one!

My youngest son had the same problem, Xero. When he was 4 I had to buy an artificial tree because that was one of the many things he was allergic to.

That was fine with me! No tree to buy each year, no pine needles on the floor to deal with, and no shelling out that money each year for a new tree!

But, my husband wants a real tree now. My son had 5 years worth of allergy shots so now he's healthier than I am! LOL

I agree wholeheartedly with your reasoning for having a fake tree! If my grandmother was allergic, or even if my son was still allergic, I'd have a fake tree. It just wouldn't make sense to put something like a real tree above the comfort of our own family!