The real live Christmas trees vs. environmentally, eco-friendly artificial Christmas trees debate rages on. Is it better to buy a real live Christmas tree, with the fresh clean smell of pine, or should you buy a fake artificial Christmas tree? If you celebrate Christmas, you would likely agree that it’s just not Christmas without a tree, decorated with beautiful Christmas ornaments and decorations
I don’t know why the cost of live Christmas trees has gone up so much in recent years, but there was a time when buying a Christmas tree from a “choose and cut” tree farm was the cheap way to buy a Christmas tree. From what I’ve heard, tree farms are feeling pressured to raise the cost of their trees because of how expensive it is to run the tree farm all year long, plus the rising cost of gasoline to transport the trees from location to another.
Real Live Christmas Trees
Until a few years ago, we would buy a live tree from a local Christmas tree “farm” so to speak that took up shop on the corner lot near a busy intersection. The trees were always in great condition and came in all sizes and shapes, and we typically ended up buying a live tree for Christmas that would almost touch our high cathedral ceilings.
That meant we had to find a very tall tree in the best condition humanly possible, and then bring it home and deal with the mess of the pine needles falling off, constantly checking to make sure there was enough water to keep it alive until after Christmas. What a mess live Christmas trees make!
After Christmas, we would throw it out front of the house on the curb where everyone else on the block put their tree, for the garbage man to come along and pick it up and take the trees somewhere to recycle the old dead tree and turn it into mulch, or whatever is typically done with dead Christmas trees.
We began to wonder if we were really doing the environment any favors with our tradition of always buying a live tree that had been cut down, overloaded with Christmas ornaments, lights and trimmings that took days to wrap around the tree, for the tree to finally end up being put through a mulch making machine or whatever you call the machine that turns things into mulch.
Sure, the live tree we used for Christmas was made into mulch, which is eco-friendly in and of itself and helps the environment, but we weren’t helping our pocket book by annually spending more money to buy a new live Christmas tree and then turn it into mulch once the holidays were over. We felt like we were throwing our hard-earned money out the window never to be seen again, or perhaps I should say we felt like we were putting our money through a mulch machine each and every year at Christmastime.
We began to wonder if we shouldn’t consider the amount of money we would save if we simply bought a real-looking artificial Christmas tree that came pre-lit with flickering lights of every color you can imagine. Some say that live Christmas trees are more eco-friendly and better for the environment, including a long list of reasons to back up the claims, while others say that artificial Christmas trees (let’s just say Fake Christmas Trees) are more environmentally friendly.
Who is right? Should you buy a real Christmas tree or an artificial Christmas tree?
Artificial Christmas Trees
Considering how much it costs to buy a live Christmas tree these days, we began doing some research and started looking for an inexpensive Christmas tree that looks real. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know there were so many kinds of Christmas trees such as Douglas Fir or White Pine, because what is most important to me is that we find the perfect Christmas tree for us, get it home as fast as possible and start our annual tradition of decorating the Christmas tree as a family.
We were happily surprised to find a huge variety of artificial trees, some pre-lit and some with no lights or pine cones attached, and the colors of fake trees came as a big surprise! I had no idea there was such a thing as a black artificial Christmas tree! We saw artificial trees that come in pink, blue, brown, white, purple, silver, just about any color, size and shape you can imagine! Have you ever gone shopping for artificial Christmas trees and suddenly come upon a red colored tree? What about a blue artificial Christmas tree?
After spending a ridiculous amount of time browsing in stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart trying to find a cheap Christmas tree (that didn’t really look cheap if you know what I mean), we decided to visit a local Christmas-themed store called Decorator’s Warehouse friends had told us about, and oh my gosh…what a beautiful collection of real looking artificial Christmas trees we found there.
I’m sure some people like the fake Christmas trees found at Home Depot, Walmart or Lowe’s, but we weren’t impressed with the quality at all. Inexpensive is one thing when it comes to buying an artificial tree, but after seeing what we found at those stores, we realized that having a fake tree that would last a few years meant we had to be willing to spend a little more money to get a quality tree.
The collection of artificial trees we found at Decorator’s Warehouse is nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before. The trees came unlit, pre-lit, clear lights, multi-colored lights (my favorite), a combination of clear and multi-colored lights, flickering lights (or dancing lights), and some trees even had pine cones already on the trees!
The artificial Christmas tree we ultimately chose is a 12-foot high pre-lit tree with pine cones attached to the branches. I couldn’t possibly tell you how wide the tree is around, but the boxed-up tree took up every inch in the back of the pickup truck we used to deliver it to our front door, and it took four men to carry the tree into the house.
I don’t know if a real Christmas tree is more eco-friendly than an artificial Christmas tree and better for the environment, because the Christmas ornaments, lights and decorations
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