An innocent posting (of mine) to Facebook last weekend sparked a bit of debate, so I thought I’d bring it here. Not the debate necessarily. Just the questions. You see, I’ve been harboring a bit of Christmas-decorating guilt. Because I haven’t done any yet. And I probably wouldn’t think of doing any if not for My Liege and Youngest Son doing it for me. Doing the outside decorating, that is. The blow-up Santa on the motorcycle is on the carport roof, the 
lights are on the house. But I’m not, no way, not even considering, putting up our Christmas tree until at least December 15th. I’ve never been able to fathom putting up the tree earlier than 2 weeks prior to the big day. Part of this is because we use live trees, and I like them to last until after January 1st. We put our tree in the family room in the basement, because that’s where the monster TV and fireplace is, and My Liege does love his fire every night. We have a huge living room, but when we first moved into this house it served as a living room/piano room/partial dining room AND office (complete with two desks). There was no room for a tree. So the stockings went on the upstairs fireplace and the tree went downstairs. My kids grew up like that, so that’s how they want the tradition to remain. I can’t argue.
Thanks to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, it has recently been revealed to me that it might be something of an American tradition to to do all your Christmas decorating—including putting up the tree—on Thanksgiving weekend a month before Christmas. In some ways, the idea makes me jealous. American Thanksgiving kicks off the holiday season, so dispensing with the turkey one day, observing Black Friday the next, then decorating for Christmas makes sense. For me as a Canadian, however, it doesn’t make sense until I’m staring the Christmas countdown in the face, and that’s always ten days before.
Now, some say you can put up your tree a month early even if it’s a live tree, that proper watering will keep it going until Christmas. Thanks, but I don’t want to try that with a roaring fire in the same room every evening. The other option that is becoming more and more popular is the artificial Christmas tree. Twenty years ago, I found fake trees laughable. I mean, they looked pretty darn fake. Now, they look great. I can easily see the argument for an artificial tree (which I’ll refer to as fake from now on for the sake of my typing fingers). They can go up earlier and you don’t have to worry about them catching on fire or your toddlers playing in the water or eating the needles 
that fall on the floor. If you buy a good fake tree, I’m sure you could expect to keep it for twenty years before dumping it in the landfill. Whereas, with a live tree, you replace it every year.
We get our live trees from a Christmas tree farm down the road (that’s a picture from last year). The farm is within walking distance, but the trees are up a steep hill and we always seem to have to go to the top to find THE one. That’s enough walking without needing to haul the tree all the way back to the house without benefit of the pickup. Before we discovered the Christmas tree farm, we’d cut a live tree from our woodlot or a piece of property we once owned, or one of my dad’s properties. We called it juvenile thinning. Now, it’s much easier to just visit the tree farm, which didn’t grow anything but dry yellow grass and cow pies before it came into existence. Every year around about this coming weekend, we go and flag which tree we want. Then, when we go back around the 15th, we’re rest assured there’s still a tree left to buy. The tree goes up until New Year’s Day, and then we take it into town for chipping. For getting a live tree, I figure the way we do it could qualify as “green.”
I didn’t realize until I posted about live versus fake trees on Facebook that there’s a bit of a controversy over the environmental greenness of Christmas trees. I can see arguments on both sides, so I thought I’d do a little survey here.
- Do you have a fake or live tree?
- What’s the reason for your choice? Are you motivated by environmentalism or something else?
- Are you staunchly against live or fake trees? Why?
- How early do you put up your tree?
- When do you take it down?
- If Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving in October, why can’t we kick off our Christmas holiday season then?
- If not for Halloween, would we?
- Can you imagine drinking eggnog for two freaking months?
We finally went with an artificial tree due to allergies. I would love a live tree, but I’d want one with the root ball so I could plant it after Christmas.
I used to decorate the day after Thanksgiving, but now it gets later every year. In fact, if it weren’t for the kids and grandkids, I wouldn’t decorate at all. Too much work for such a short time. I used to leave the tree up until New year’s, but now I take it down a day or two after Christmas. It takes up too much room in the house.
Eggnog? Ugh. Don’t drink it at all. 🙂
Tori
We had live trees for many years, but now we have fake ones. It’s easier and we can keep the decorations longer. I do miss the smell, though, and it was fun to pick out our own tree. I don’t miss picking up the needles after we take down the decorations and throw out the old tree.
We do put ours up after Thanksgiving now. We leave it until the end of January. We have the room and it’s pretty. So why not?
I’m too lazy to answer all those questions, but here’s my tradition: fake tree goes up over Thanksgiving. I get a fake tree because I want it up for a month and a real one wouldn’t last that long. I want it up for a month because I see no point in getting all the decor junk out if I’m going to turn around and put it back two weeks later.
And besides, I love Christmas. I’ve always loved Christmas, I have lots of good family memories there (not to mention I despise summer which lasts forever where I live), so I like to prolong the season. 🙂
(P.S. Eggnog is gross. But I *would* drink gingerbread lattes for two months!)
Hi Tori,
I’ve never heard of a Xmas tree with a root ball. That’s interesting and another way to help “green” Xmas, that’s for sure.
I agree that decorating is a lot of work. I think some people are more inclined to it than others. If not for my dh, it would probably be the 20th before I thought of Xmas lights. I don’t put up wreaths on my door, etc. I do display a creche that I put out when we do the tree. I’m just not one to strew my house with decorations for any holiday. I only put out Halloween decorations a few hours before the kids come trick or treating, and then I only do it because otherwise they might not visit our house, due to its location. But I know a lot of people who get very much into decorating for Christmas, etc. I just don’t have the time.
Edie, that’s a great point. I wouldn’t miss picking up the needles, either.
Okay, I’m going to sound like a scrooge – I used to love putting up our Christmas tree back when we didn’t have many ornaments. I buy a new dated ornament every year, and I don’t want to break the tradition, as I’ve been doing it since my dh and I first began living together. But it’s making for a lot more ornaments! I do have fun decorating the tree, but I hate putting on the tree lights because of getting my fingers prickled. And we always have to secure the tree, because of where it sits in the basement, so that it doesn’t fall over. IOW, it’s a lot of work!
Artificial trees sound like less work.
Plus, I can see putting it up early and leaving it up if it’s artificial. No muss, no fuss.
Avery, I like eggnog! In moderation.
Okay, we have 3 here answering ALL with artificial trees. Where I live, live trees are in abundance. B.C. provides most of the lumber for housing around the world, after all. I think that’s one of the reasons I haven’t before considered getting an artificial tree. It seems kind of odd when a Christmas tree farm is within walking distance and when we could easily get a tree permit from the Forestry service and cut a tree from Crown land, which actually does the bigger trees a favour, because you cut the smaller trees for Xmas trees and the “thinning” allows the bigger trees around them to grow even bigger.
It is an adventure to get a live tree, but I imagine as I get older and the kids begin having families of their own, adventure will give way to convenience.
I hate fake trees. I don’t care that they look a lot better now, they’re FAKE. LOL We did a fake one for a couple of years when we lived in a third-floor walk-up, and I swear, it killed my Christmas spirit. Now, if it weren’t for the husband’s rabid enthusiasm and my two kids, I wouldn’t bother doing anything!
BUT, since we do, I insist on a live tree. We cut our own at a farm or buy from the Boy Scouts, for whom it’s a major annual fundraiser, or the local fire department. We get it three weeks before Christmas and take it down New Year’s weekend. During that time, my house smells AWESOME and no fake tree can replicate the beauty of the lights on the needles.
Funny story: The Christmas I was born, my dad was stationed in England. I’m not sure it’s still true, but back then, ALL Christmas trees had root balls. This was not common practice in the States, but my mother loved it. She asked where she could get a bucket of dirt to put it in until they planted it, and got lots of dirty looks–she meant “soil,” as dirt is human…um…feces. It embarrassed her for years! 🙂
Natalie, that’s a great story about your mom. LOL, poor woman. Reminds me of a friend of mine who moved to England and worked in London for three years. She asked if it was okay to wear “pants” to work. Her co-workers were appalled. She meant what they would call “trousers.” “Pants” to them were panties/underwear. LOL!
Tomorrow the dh, dog and I are walking to the tree farm to flag our tree. E.S. comes home about 10 days from now, so we won’t cut it until then. It’s still a family event for us.
Okay, I have 3 with artificial trees from this informal survey and one with a live tree. The fake trees are still winning! I can’t even bring the live trees up to a tie with the inclusion of MY live tree.
We’ve had both fake and real trees while I was growing up. Since I’ve been on my own, I’ve had a fake tree simply because it was easier for me to handle by myself. I’m not opposed to a real tree, just to me trying to get it and take care of it. I usually put it up the weekend after our Thanksgiving, but this year I waited until this weekend so my young niece and nephew can help. I usually take it down the first weekend after New Year’s Day.
You make a very good point, Lexi. If I were on my own, I’d probably be more inclined to a fake tree, too.
We just got back from flagging our tree. I was very happy we didn’t have to walk to the top of the Xmas tree farm this year.
It’s coming home on the 15th. That gives me time to get other jobs done first.
I’m not decorating at all this year not in the mood to fool with it. I don’t like eggnog either lol. I do aritificial have since Germany where the mess of the live tree burned me out for good. I don’t have kids and I have to work so not a big deal. We soemtimes invite my family here as we’re halfway in between bu tI haven’t been able to find a way to clean the house good enough for company lately. So I will meet my fmaily and trea tto alunch on 22 December in Paris for my mom, her husband, and my aunt and will see the Fort Hood area gang this week for a visit. Just not a good Christmas Season for me this year running up and down the road with Jim’s illness hasn’t helped either.
Hi Kathy,
I don’t blame you for not decorating. We just have to do the best we can for our personal situations, and it sounds like you have an awful lot on your plate. Have a great lunch and I hope the Fort Hood visiting goes great!
The artificial trees have definitely come out on top in this (completely scientific) survey!
We’ve always switched between real and fake. I’m not sure why…I love the smell of the real trees, but hate the pine needles (which is bad for the animals to ingest anyway). Fake trees are certainly easier to take care of and set up – the number 1 best part is having a tree that is pre-lit. Don’t have to mess with oodles and oodles of tangled light strands.
Real trees can last – safely! – from American Thanksgiving through the end of the year. there are tons of products available that you can purchase and add to the water, spray on the bottom of the cut tree, on the needles themselves. The green industry has taken great strides to create family-friendly, less flammable trees. Well, not the trees, but their duration. There’s a product that allows you to put the tree in the stand, fill the stand with water and not have to refill it the entire season.There are directions for the amount of water based on the length of time you keep it up. It’s kind of like the self-watering dog bowls. There is a product called Moisturin from GSI horticultural (used on the White House Tree this year) that helps maintain the moisture of the tree. All sorts of great products.
However … I have a rambunctions dog and teenagers and a hectic schedule so we go with the fake tree. cause after all, if it gets knocked over, water won’t spill anywhere and if I can’t take it down til February, it won’t be a fire hazard!
Great discussion, Cindy!
Hi Jennifer,
I had no clue artificial trees came with lights already on. Now there’s a bonus.
Wow, you know a lot about real trees. We haven’t bought a new tree stand in several years. Again, I had no idea they had progressed so far. Ours is very stable and has a little hose running from the big water well to a tiny one. You fill the tiny well (every day) and the water flows into the big cup so you don’t have to climb under the tree. Of course, the cat thinks it’s a cool water dish.
The fake trees are clearly winning. Strange that I never actually SEE a fake tree anywhere. I do believe this must have to do with where I live.