Which is better for the environment- real or fake Xmas trees?

Looks better? Well, to be honest, the fake ones look better. Especially when the needles are all over the house and your vacuum sweeper is clogged up with them.

What's better for the environment? The real trees are a "renewable" product. BUT, they take water to grow (not a huge amount, thankfully). BUT, they produce oxygen and are compostable. On the other hand, the artificial ones last longer, but are not compostable. If they'd just come up with artificial trees that are made up of garbage and are compostable, we'd have a win-win situation.

What reminds me of my childhood? Oh, the real ones, of course. I didn't have an artificial tree until I was 40.
 
Growing up, we had artificial trees. Maybe early on real ones.
I personally have neither. Just one of those small ceramic ones with the lights. One, I do not decorate much at all. But for a real tree...you are cutting down a live tree, just for the purpose for bringing it into an un natural setting for a few weeks. Artificial...well, plastic and other fake stuff. Yuck.
I know some folks take their real trees to be mulched for the garden and all. But I am the Scrooge here who never saw the poing, in my adult years, of having a tree in the house.
So, I vote neither is cool
 

Which ones look nicest? The ones that look nice. Both artificial and real trees can look equally nice but I prefer the scent of the real 🌲 trees

Real trees can be composted
Artificial ones can’t

Since we never had a real tree when we were kids, the artificial white or silver ones remind me of our family Christmas tree with tinsel hung everywhere.
 
I don't know which is better for the environment but I do like the looks of a real tree. My dad managed a small nursery for his entire working life. At Christmas time he and a crew of workers would go to a Vermont farm and cut the trees by hand,load them up and sell them back home. He always brought 4 of the best home right away and set them up in the garage. I had first pick and the other 3 were given to my grandparents, aunts and uncles. I was so spoiled. In later years when I actually had to buy one off the lot I never could find the perfect tree so the hubby and I switched to artificial. I think he got tired of hoofing around for hours while I looked. These days we have a little 3 foot tree,that's enough for me.
 
'Which looks better in your home- fake or real Xmas trees?'

Real...looks and smell


'Which is better for the environment- real or fake trees.'

Real, especially when folks bring in a potted one (to replant after the season)
I am NOT for tree lots, however
The trip to the tree farm is a good part of the yuletide season


'Which reminds you more of your own childhood- fake or real?'

Real...up until my preteens, when we lived in a museum
Then we got a silver one
One that didn't shed or 'get messy'
We even had fake presents under that thing, in fancy wrap and bows

Hell, the whole family was artificial

No wonder I left at 16
 
I've had both real and fake xmas trees while growing up and both had their pluses. As an adult, I cannot condone the cutting of millions of trees just to celebrate one day in December. So, I'll take the fake trees thank you.
 
I was looking into an artificial tree (some of them look really nice) but then I found out they're extremely flammable, much more so than real trees. You throw out the real tree in January, but you have to store the fake one. You'd better make sure it's in a fireproof container! No thanks, I'll stick with real ones. Or if I just want the smell, I'll get a wreath.
 
Real trees for me as Iove the distinctive smell of spruce The needles used to be everywhere and could still be in the carpet the following year if the vacuum missed them.😄
 
I recently read that the breakeven point for real vs artificial tree is five years. That is, if you repeatedly use your artificial tree for five years or more it is better for your wallet and for the environment. For real trees they factored in things such as how far you drove to obtain it what expenses were involved in disposal, etc. Artificial trees involve less travel in their projection because normally a consumer just drives to a nearby store.

My artificial tree is in year nine of its service so I guess I'm doing well. In my youth, we just walked a few hundred feet into the woods behind the house and then dragged a tree back to the house. Then on New Years Eve we gave the tree a Viking Funeral in the back field. Depending on age, everyone got a hot spiced something to keep their body warm and we finished off with fireworks left over from the previous fourth of July.
 
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We just replaced our first artificial tree. It was 5 years old and I got tired of trying to locate the burned out bulbs. The new one has LEDs and even a remote to change the colors and make it flash. But, to be honest, it's not a Christmas tree to me. It's just a flashy decoration.

When I was a kid, the Christmas tree was always a scrawny little Douglas fir sitting on a box to make it look taller. It had a few strings of real colored bulbs, some very old and shaped like things, lots of glass ornaments, and was buried in lead icicles. Mother would spread some cotton around the base to cover the wooden stand. It smelled like a tree.

One year, my oldest brother who was a truck driver, stopped along a road somewhere up north, walked into the woods in the dark and cut down a little tree and brought it home. That one was really pitiful, but we loved it.

When our kids were growing up, we went to a local cut your own tree farm located under some high voltage power distribution lines. The trees were Scotch pine that were really bushes trimmed to a tree shape. But they smelled good too. My wife made some decorated green felt to place under them to put packages and our nativity scene. One year our dog ate the manger and I had to make another one.

When you figure that artificial trees are made of metal and petroleum derived plastic, and are shipped all the way from China, they are probably not the best for the environment, especially since they end up in a land fill. Our city collects real trees and composts them. Of course. of you really want to be environmentally friendly, don't have a tree. There are other decorations you could put up and a real wreath smells nice too. But, my wife isn't buying that.

Don
 


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