Christmas Tree- real or fake?

Witzend

Dd1 and family have rented a real one this year - they picked it up yesterday. It’s drinking gallons of water!

Ours did to begin with but soon stabilised.

A snowy tree this year, white decorations with a little gold.

Dd1 and family have rented a real one this year - they picked it up yesterday. It’s drinking gallons of water!

I've had the same two fake trees for thirty years - their carbon footprint must be minimal by now.

Not us kitty duh. Will now though!

To be honest, I though everyone used the old duvet method of removal!

Yes, we have done what Lindspat recommends for some years. We have a tree in the bay window at the front of the house and getting it in and out of the house was really difficult.

We have now replaced it with an artificial tree, but still have a real one in the living room, which stands just in front of the French doors so makes its entrance and exit directly too and from the garden and leaves minimal mess inside.

One year I stood ours on an old duvet cover, pulled the cover up over the tree and tied the top. Success! We got it out of the house and into the car without any shedding of needles.

If only DH had brought the duvet cover back from the tip so we could have used it again….

Good shout LindaPat thanks.

A tip for anyone with a real tree, for when you take it down.

Before moving the tree, lay an old sheet ( the bigger the better) on the floor in front of it. Loosen the tree from it's stand and lay it down on the sheet. Wrap the sheet around the tree, as tight as you can, to carry it outside.

Saves an awful lot of needles pinging off in all directions as you go past furniture and through doorways!

Take care xx

You’ve made a glorious job of your Christmas ? Grandmabatty and I love the star on the top ⭐️

Tree and decorations are up. It's early for me but I don't care!Theworriedwell that's lovely about your grandson. I hope he continues to get well.

He's downstairs, very excited to get his Advent Calendar and see the tree so was worth the effort. Amazing how a few hours of relative normality can make such a difference.

Just put my tree up, I normally put it up a few days before Christmas but GS has been isolated in his bedroom for 8 days and I've said he can come downstairs for a couple of hours today (windows open, him sitting well away from us) as he is getting very depressed. So there is my artificial tree with my husbands angel on the top, he says she was on his tree from as early as he can remember so that is 70 years old. She is showing her age but place of honour.

Advent calendar out for him and nativity scene on the hearth.

Very exciting afternoon for him. Hope it cheers him up.

Always have a real tree. This year we bought potted rooted one. It's just over 5ft tall. In the garden til a few days before Xmas, then back out a few days after.

Please be careful with real trees, years ago my DIL and I were putting the decorations on and afterwards we both had awful rashes on our arms. We think that it was from chemicals that were sprayed on the tree.

Janetashbolt

no tree, no kids in the family, no visitors so I won't bother

No mess or clearing up either. But you will indulge yourself a little I hope, wont you Janetashbolt?

We used to have a fake one because of having a dog (didn't want dropped pine needles getting in her paws). But since she went to The Rainbow Bridge, we have a real one from a local grower. It's part of our Christmas preparations to choose one ourselves and bring it home. Beautiful scent and every year it's slightly different. After Christmas we donate it to a local Alpaca owner - they love to nibble pine trees and it keeps them occupied for days, apparently!

Shandy57

I am investigating being 'green' and the carbon footprint of a real tree is far less than artificial. We always had big 9 foot real trees in our family home, but I'm now in a bungalow with far lower ceilings, and far less space.

See my earlier post re the carbon footprint of real versus fake.

We bought an articial tree
a few years ago after having an expensive and wasteful real ones for many years. We love our fake one, it looks wonderfully real and paid for itself in less than two years. The only thing I miss is the smell, but I usually try to get a branch of real fir somewhere to get a whiff. I also have a lovely candle that smells of log fires to make up for it!

Bah humbug. I don't have one at all. Much too lazy but revel in everyone else's labours and artistic talents. Love Christmas but don't do personal trimmings in my mansion. When my son visits he says it's the only bit of normality he can find in the world.

Fake had it 25 years l read somewhere its better for the enviroment if you use year after year.

Sleepygran love it!!

We have a fake tree but the first year it was up I realised that I really missed the smell of fir! So I picked some fir from trees in our garden and pushed them in between the branches of our fake tree. Voila! A Christmas tree that didn't need watering and a lovely smell. Job done!

We’ve had a ‘real-looking’ artificial tree for years - since our dear little cat had a pine needle from a real one wedged sharp end in to her little paw.