What type of Christmas Tree do you use?

[Drinkwaters]

We bought our fresh (supposedly) cut tree the other day. I have always had a real tree and love the balsam smell which helps me get in the spirit. When we brought it in the house there was a trail of needles that took hours to clean up and the thing is drinking alot of water. I'm done with this type of tree and will acquire an artificial one next year. I know, Bah Humbug!
Happy Holidays!

Gary

 

[Get Smart]

we have a 1950s silver tinsel tree, with the color wheel. I also have one of those black burnt looking Xmas trees that Z-Gallerie sold a few years ago. Last year we decorated both, this year just the tinsel.

 

[GQgeek]

you mean for fire-wood? Someone get me a grinch avatar. Xmas is annoying.

 

[Dakota rube]

Originally Posted by Get Smart

we have a 1950s silver tinsel tree, with the color wheel.
I am so, so jealous.

 

[Kent Wang]

I have heard of people decorating a brussels sprout stalk.

 

[Nantucket Red]

Well, I must say that I've always loved the fragrance of a real tree, but never mind the mess and the care necessary, cutting down a live tree that spent years growing just to decorate your home for a few weeks is bordering on the obscene.

Having grown up with live trees, my family opted for an artificial tree sometime in the mid-70s. During my rebellious adolescent phase, I took the liberty of decorating our tree with a glow-in-the-dark rubber skeleton. Not only did it remain on the tree that year, but got put in the box of ornaments, many of which had been handed down for generations, and the family continued to hang the skeleton on the tree without my assistance for many years afterwards. It's worth mentioning that my step-father was a clergyman who had a perverse sense of humor, and no doubt found some sort of theological symbolism in the unorthodox ornament. In any case, it became a family institution.

By the 90s, the entire family had sickened of Christmas and the whole tree-decoration ritual, so someone went out in the yard and found a dead branch, which we propped up in a prominent spot and decorated with a few ornaments, including -- yes! -- the skeleton. We all joined in and had more fun decorating that barren twig than any of us had had in years.

 

[texas_jack]

Has to be a real tree. One of the things I like the best about trees is the smell. Some types have the pine smell more than others and depending on how fresh cut they are they will smell more or less.

 

[Bradford]

Originally Posted by drink8648

We bought our fresh (supposedly) cut tree the other day. I have always had a real tree and love the balsam smell which helps me get in the spirit. When we brought it in the house there was a trail of needles that took hours to clean up and the thing is drinking alot of water. I'm done with this type of tree and will acquire an artificial one next year. I know, Bah Humbug!
Happy Holidays!

Gary

This is exactly what we went through last year, so we bought a pre-lit fake one on clearance the week after Christmas (a Martha Stewart one from K-Mart) and I just this past weekend, I set it up for the first time.

I'm a convert now.

 

[StevenRocks]

I resisted fake trees for a long time, but they're more convenient and hold the ornaments better than real ones. I haven't had a real tree in years.

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

Well, I must say that I've always loved the fragrance of a real tree, but never mind the mess and the care necessary, cutting down a live tree that spent years growing just to decorate your home for a few weeks is bordering on the obscene.


This is pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Seeing all the discarded trees on city sidewalks after New Years makes me a little ill.

The two times in my memory that we had a live tree it was balled and burlapped, and after Christmas it went outside into a hole that had been prepared and filled with dry leaves months prior. That way, you get a live tree in the house, save a tree from said sidewalk death, and plant a tree too. And planting a tree is really much more satisfying (and more work) than decorating anything.

Regards,
Huntsman

 

[Steve B.]

Someone get me a grinch avatar

I'll let you use mine. After you acknowledge the error of your ways.

 

[faustian bargain]

I need to get me one of those pre-lit puppies. Stringing lights is for the birds.

Also the midcentury tinsel tree would be awesome. For many years now I have longed for one of those metal trees that Charlie Brown and Linus check out every year on the christmas movie. Something with a nice hollow "tonnnng" when you tap it.

I take it noone is hanging their trees from the ceiling this year? I heard that the black trees were still popular though.

 

[WN2]

Real tree is a must. I still feel bad about discarding real candles from it, but those are a bit risky with an animal in da house.

 

[AlanC]

We always get--and we have always had--a real tree. In fact today is the day we take the kids to the Christmas tree farm where we will select and bag the tree.

Growing up we always cut a cedar down from the woods or fields behind our house. Cedar always smells like Christmas to me. Alas, these days you can only find more high end trees at Christmas tree farms so I have to live without the smell.

As for exploiting poor trees, where I grew up cedars are weed trees. In fact, unless you keep a field mowed it will become overgrown in a matter of just a couple of years with the things. Cutting them down is a service to the farm and the land. Pretty much all Christmas trees that are sold come from Christmas tree farms; the trees are specifically planted for that purpose just like any other crop. We're not talking about some sort of old growth forest being clear cut. In many instances a Christmas tree farm is owned by a family, and gives them another viable source of income, which is the kind of farm we're going to today.

Many cities will take trees to be ground into chips for use in gardens, which if you're concerned about the next stage for the tree that would seem to me to an excellent option.

Real trees all the way!

 

[Get Smart]

Originally Posted by Nantucket Red

During my rebellious adolescent phase, I took the liberty of decorating our tree with a glow-in-the-dark rubber skeleton. .

nice! on my burnt Xmas tree I hung strings of lighted skulls in lieu of xmas lights. My fiancee called it the Tree of Death, as opposed to our tinsel "Tree of Life" with all of its bright happiness and plethora of weinerdog ornaments that we've collected.