How do you like your christmas tree?

I personally prefer fake.

Pros:

-It can't die

-It won't burn very much, unlike real ones, which are as flammable as Doom3 explosive barrels.

-No pine needles to constantly pick up

Cons:

-No tree smell, but that's fixed by sliding a can of pine air freshener under the tree

edit: Dammit, I meant to post a poll. Could an admin add it with real and fake options? Thanks.

pine needles arent a con, just something people who get the wrong kinda tree have to put up with.

every single real tree we have had didnt leave a single pine needle on the floor.

Ignore this for now...

[EDIT] Poll created.

We've pretty much always had a fake tree. The real ones lost too many needles, and with the dogs we didn't want them eating them. A fake tree is easy to set up, don't have to go out in the freakin cold to chop one down, you can sort of arrange the branches, or bend them at the very least to get the desired effect, and some even come with lights on them, which saves you another hassle. Personally, I always liked putting the light and ornmanets on, but some people don't.

I used to prefer real trees, but then learned just how much more convenient a synthetic one is. You don't have to worry about hauling it through the doors, keeping it watered, and it isn't anywhere near as heavy. Spe, I have no idea what specie of tree you got that doesn't drop needles; the only one I know of is the "fake" kind.

Oh, and can you easily box up a real tree? Didn't think so.

Real. The tree smell is a must and it can't really be duplicated. Fire isn't really an issue if you keep the tree watered.

scotch pine or somesuch, doesnt drop needles for about 6 months after uprooting.

i'm no tree expert but i kick *** at inspecting carpet and i can tell you with full confidence that my carpet was needle free after the tree went after every christmas.

I'd say I prefer real trees, but we've been using a fake one for years. Real ones are expensive, a hassle to put up, they almost always drop needles (particularly if the room is warm) and my mum's against the idea of growing trees expressly for the purpose of chopping them down and sticking them in someone's front room for barely a month.

The tree smell can't be duplicated, eh? And neither can the smell of a new car, I bet you think. You'd be amazed at how powerful modern technology is; you can't even tell a tree-scented air freshener isn't the real thing.

And on the opposite site of the technology issue, it doesn't matter how well a real tree is watered; it is still a fire hazard when addorned with anywhere from 1,400 to 5,876 lights. Both figures are ones that we've used, honest! However, the latter one was a tree outside, that could be spotted and identified from well over a mile away.

I prefer a real one, because I find that no matter how good a fake tree you get, it never quite looks real (or rather, maybe it does, but it costs 10 times the price.) I also adore the pine smell from the real one. True, pine needles can be a problem, but only if you get the tree too early. If you time it right, by the time it starts flooding you with pine needles, it'll be gone. Also, to me, a plastic tree just doesn't have that christmassy feel.

:thumbsup: <-- we need one.

=)

We've always had a real tree..maybe if I lived alone, I could deal with a fake one -- but not with a family of seven..lol

I prefer fake trees. No way I'm gonna have those real ones anywhere in my apartment.

Fake.

This definately isn't the thread I thought it was going to be when I first clicked it.

I see the advantages of a fake tree, but we've always had a real tree since I was a little kid, and it jut wouldn't be Christmas without one (And no the smell CANNOT be duplicated, yes you CAN tell the real thing for a can of airfreshner, unless perhaps you have a cold or something.) The hassle of the needles is, to me, fully worth the experience of a real tree.

Fake. Definitely. With so many cats around, they might be more interested in climbing a real tree instead of a plastic tree.

Plus I like that when I'm putting my ornaments on, they're not going to get all sticky from the tree.

Considering our family has shrunk considerably since we last got a real tree (people died, people left) it's pretty much pointless to go to all that hassle. We just got a new fake tree with the lights pre-strung and it's perfect.

Now they just need to put LED lights pre-strung on a tree, cause pretty much with these pre-strung ones if a string of lights goes out one year...you're screwed.

Fake, because I can't stand the smell of real trees.

I think you already mentioned that in that thread about breasts a while back.

All this hassle is part of Christmas, to me. It just wouldn't be the same if we didn't always have to invent a new way of getting the tree into the living room.
Fire is of no concern to as, because we use electric lights. And we never had problems with needles or sticky ornaments.

when we lived in Germany we used to always get real trees, the smell of Pine always reminded me of xmas, I love the smell, so I wouldnt mind real, but since we've lived in FL we've used the same fake tree for years now

I string my own lights. The first time I ever did it I made the mistake of connecting them all together (you're only supposed to attatch no more than 3 sets of 100 lights together) and all the fuses blew and burned out the light set.

I prefer real trees, and up until this Christmas it's all we've ever used. But, my brother's fiance is allergic, and my Mom got a really nice synthetic tree on clearance after Christmas last year. Something like it normall sells for around $500-600 and she bought it and the ornaments for like $100. I havn't seen it yet so I really can't comment. I did like the smell of the real ones, and the only down side was touching the trunk and getting sap on your hands. You had to wash multiple times with really hot water and lots of soap to get that stuff off. Pain in the ***.

Water or not, the tree is essentially dead when you buy it. most trees are cut about a month before they are sold, so I hear.

A few years ago, the city of long beach put a large metal dumpster in my neighbourhood for the purpose of post-christmas tree disposal. There were about 8 or 10 trees in there when a passing car threw in something, probably a cigarette.

In the space of five minutes, flames were shooting up about 20 feet. The dumpster was starting to glow red and it was put under a large planted, living pine tree which also quickly caught fire.

It took the fire department about 20 minutes to put it out, I could see it all from my house. Afterwards, the dumpster was all warped and blackened.

The point of the story: Pine trees are flammable even when they are watered. The big one was still alive and very wet (It had been watered earlier in the day) and it still burned. So even if oyu water your tree, it can stil lgo up like a can of gasoline.

Yes, but not from crappy little lightbulbs. GG.

Real trees are great in the eyes of children, but in the eyes of the parents/adults that have to get the tree, trim it, get it in the house, set it up correctly on that stupid stand that takes forever to get situated, decorate it, water it, undecorate it, get it out of the stand, take it out to the dumpster, then clean up the pineneedles, it's a very big hassle. If I had to set up the tree, I would get a fake one, but a realistic fake one. I've help set up a nice sized tree before, it's not a one person job. Single people, unless they can get help, will probably get a fake tree or no tree at all.

Fake, black.

****ing goffs :p

Fake.

Life in plastic, it's fantastic!

My family usually goes to a place where you cut your own tree down.

I'm a tree nut of sorts and I spend a lot of time working with trees and around them, so I can tell a fake pine smell from a real one. They jsut aren't the same. :p

My roomate and I decided to keep our tree up year round, and keep adding different holiday lights onto it

Right now we have a Christmas tree with the classic Christmas lights, along with skulls and turkey's for Halloween and Thanksgiving. We are going to look for some other holiday lights, and just keep throwing them on there. Fun stuff

Well apparantly the pine needles are quite bad for little doggies should they happen to take a fancy to eating them, so I prefer fake, cause I like my doggy.

real ones are a pain in the a** but happin to be sooo nice once everything is on'em proper. fake ones tend to hert my hands putting it all up and feel really bad to the touch, but i still prefer them on most occasions.

Real. It has always been a real one, and for me it's the only true Christmas tree. Yet I understand people who are allergic or have small dogs or something. But otherwise if you can't stand the (possible) little trouble a real tree can cause, what can you stand in your life, anyway?

And I certainly like how all the real trees are a bit different, even if the strain is the same.

Can't beat the natural kind.

All my life we've had real trees, and all my life we've always had two cats and a dog (a total of four cats and two dogs), and we've never had a problem with any of our pets climbing/eating the tree nor have we really had any problems with "sticky ornaments"... That's not to say that it doesn't happen, though

But for me, it just wouldn't be Christmas without a real tree

I love to get real trees. i go up in the mountains and cut teh perfect one down every year. hmmmmm..... good memories:D

My family does fake. It saves on our hospital bill as my Dad had this nasty habit of cutting his finger when he'd be sawing off the stump every year. Those emergency room visits were killer.

I pefer fake plastic trees.

Which I water with my green plastic watering can.

...

My family always gets real ones. Tradition.

I don't really have a preference tho -- as long as it looks nice... and Christmassy.

But yes, walking away with sticky hands from stringing the tree with lights is a major pain!
No. Argument.

You'd be surprised how hot those "crappy little lightbulbs" can make something. That 5,876-bulb tree happened to get rather hot, so much that you could feel it from several feet away, almost as if it was a bon fire...

Additionally, how do all these "traditional" things make it Christmas? What's the need to go through all the extra work, killing a tree, getting sap on your hands, all so it's "Christmas." This just baffles me; what does chopping down trees have to do with Jesus's birth, anyway?