Real or Artificial?

[Mr. Christmas]

Which do you use. Artificial can be put up earlier and stay out longer. Real has that unique pine scent.

[Jeff Westover]

I gotta tell you, Mr. C -- for years I was a purist and only a real tree would do. In many ways I still feel that way. But since I moved to the desert and can't keep a real tree in my house for more than three or four days without it posing a major fire hazard, we've gone artificial. I miss the tradition of cutting down a tree...heck, just finding one was fun. But there is security in knowing what your tree will look like every year!

Jeff

[cspelling]

Wow, I was the first person to vote for real. I am sure there are other reasons why people selected artificial though other than preference. We have never had an artificial tree. It is alot easier up in Canada to keep them I guess :smile: (Sorry yours becomes a fire hazard Jeff :( )

[Jeff Westover]

Yes, it probably is, especially since it is a flocked artificial tree. But I really, really miss the traditionof cutting down a tree. It used to be the highlight of my season. Such a great tradition.

Jeff

[dowload]

i've always had to have an artificial tree because my brother was allergic to real ones. :)

[sheepsnot]

My family switched to artificial trees in the late 70s and there are still pine needles in the carpet! About the only thing I would like that an artificial tree doesn't have in the scent, but you can buy a can of that and hose down your fake tree, right? I just like the cool new pre-lit trees; some even have music that plays when the tree is lit. :) :) :) :)

[HolliDee]

Real is my preference for sure - but when your tree goes under a vent - well, ya gotta go with safety over preference. I always bring in fresh greenery for my tables and I usually have a fresh garland on my fireplace that I hang there a couple of days before Christmas to give me the fragrance I love and remember from childhood!

[Saxomaphone]

My Grandparents ALWAYS have a real tree. I can always remember the smell (and the pain of them spikes digging in me). I used to always help my Nan decorate the tree. It took us hours, because she has so many decorations, but it was well worth it, the tree always looked beautiful. One year, she had a fake tree, and hated it the whole time. She's back to the real ones now.

We've always had an artificial one in our own house. I remember the little silver one we used to have when I was a kid. Mum's just bought a fibre optic one for the lounge, and I've been given the old 6ft tree. Not bad.
They last longer, and they don't prick you!
I'm also getting a dancing tree! :grin: :D :-)

[SnowAngelChristmas]

When i was young me and my family would always get a real one for we lived in Washington(State). But now i live in texas and can't find a real good one. So i use Fake. :( :(

Although i do miss the piny scent and warmness of a real tree.

[gameshowguy2000]

I have the Fake tree. Would that be Artificial?

(BTW, some fake trees are boxed)

[Saxomaphone]

My fake tree is up now! The decorations go up tomorrow!

[SnowAngelChristmas]

I have a tree in my room. A real tree! I haven't had one of those since i was 4!

[Saxomaphone]

Wow cool! I'd love a real tree in my room, but the mess would be a nightmare, cos my room is small! It'd also hurt my cats little paws! She sleeps under my tree! :D

[Smemorina]

:grin:

I prefer within house a false tree, while to the outside he can be true, but in house it would be to the end a dead tree (in Italy do not use trees with root and therefore possible to replace in earth)
My hour is ready, with all the decorations and the lights that sorridono to us... :)
ciao ciaooo

http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/3678/image49ir.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Saxomaphone]

I like how some people put lights on their trees in their garden, it's a nice touch. I leave the real trees outside though.

[Jeff Westover]

We're working on our own outside "live" tree. It'll take a few years but it is the only way we can do a fresh tree, living in the desert like we do.

We also have a lamp post in our front yard that stands about six feet tall. I'm going to take my old fake tree and strap it to the post so that the light sticks out right at the top of tree. Then we're going to decorate it like mad.

At least that's the plan.

Jeff

[Saxomaphone]

Crikey, you live in the desert? Weird.

Sounds a nice, though somewhat weird, idea! Have fun!

[AuntieMistletoeDear]

My vote was for Real - I prefer the scent and look of a real Christmas Tree, however, I have used an artificial tree since 1985.
My parents always continued with a real tree until three years ago when my dad nearly died of cancer. The tree they have looks like a Balsam or something similar and it shows off the ornaments quite nicely like many of our former real trees did.

I'd prefer to decorate a real pine tree outside and have an artificial tree inside. (Or several, if I had room for more.) :)

[digbugsgirl]

We bought an artificial tree three years ago that I really like, but it's not the same as a real tree. I miss going to a Christmas tree farm and cutting down a tree. The reason we got an artificial tree is for a couple of reasons: family and friends are allergic to pine :( and the first Christmas in our new house our oldest furbaby was still a puppy. We were afraid of what he might do to the tree, so we decided to go artificial. One day I will get a real tree and leave the artificial tree upstairs in the loft room.

Brandy

[sheepsnot]

Pre-lit artificial. They're getting better and better, playing music and spinning and even hanging upside down now. (I had to look up furbaby. No idea what you were talking about at first.)

[HolyNight7]

I've always grown up with an artificial tree. I never had the experience of going out to chop down your own tree or go to a vender to get one roped like in A Christmas Story. I think my mom said we had a real one once. I think there's just less mess with a artificial one. My sister on the other hand always gets a real one. Her Christmas spirit is short lived I'm sad to say. She takes the tree down Christmas day. I can't handle that. She gets one maybe a couple of weeks before Christmas if that and has it down by the end of Christmas day. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

[digbugsgirl]

Sorry about that Sheepsnot. My furbabies are more than just pets to me. My hubby jokes that when one passes away, he'll have to put me down too.

Brandy

[Jeff Westover]

I really miss the tradition of the annual Christmas tree hunt. My kids hardly know it and that's a little sad. But we just can't get a tree to last more than a couple of days here. Too big a fire hazard.

Jeff

[HolyNight7]

I used to call my two Shih-Zu's fuzzy babies. They have since passed away. I miss them. They were more than pets to me too. They had their own stockings at Christmas time, Christmas decorations with their names and birthdates on them and they opened their own presents. :D

[Twinkle]

We have a Shih-tzu. I am so sorry of your loss of your little doggies. They are wonderful pets and become human almost. Our little girl is our baby and she does rule our household.
We use to have a real tree when the kids were little. We took the girls out a few days before Christmas to select our tree. A few times we went to a tree farm and cut our selected tree down. The kids still talk about it today. Wonderful memories.
Now it is just hubby and myself and we go with artificial. It is so much easier and we put it up much earlier than before.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a289/Lizilu2/Christmastreewithstar.gif
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a289/Lizilu2/Fanny12-22-04.jpg

[HolyNight7]

I love Shih Tzus' I used to have two of them myself. Rudy and Wendy and they were my babies. Rudy was a mommas boy. :grin:

[lpstong]

I have a Victorian home built in 1908. For years I would put up a 12 foot tree. I would always love the smell of the fresh pine.

But it has become difficult to find Christmas tree lots who cater to Victorian style homes. And or the trees on the lots or catalogs are becoming to expensive. So I finally just went out to by a Christmas tree at my local retailer store that specializes in crafts etc all year round. Fortunat enough I also found some ornaments as well as a 12 foot tree that matches the style of home I have.

[sheepsnot]

I really miss the tradition of the annual Christmas tree hunt. Jeff
Jeff, I well remember our Christmas tree "hunts." The neighbors hated us for hunting in their yard! :lol: :shock: :o :-(

[HolyNight7]

Sheepsnot are you married? :-D

[sheepsnot]

You betcha! 8 years, 9 months, 13 days, but who's counting?

[HolyNight7]

Well I can appreciate a guy with a great sense of humor.

[ReineV]

it's family tradition that we go down to the farmers market and pick out the perfect tree then decorate it. The house smells like pine and it's amazing! We always have real trees, but at my apartment down at school, I put up a little five foot tall fake tree.

[dvdguy]

counting like a lifer serving a prison sentence

[sheepsnot]

Lifers don't count. No point. How about counting like a reluctant sailor on a four year hitch?

[dvdguy]

counting like sheep jumping a fence, or is that too close to home

[mrshfromjersey]

I love the smell of having a real tree in the house, but not the mess. While I prefer a real tree, I will probably always have a false tree.

[dvdguy]

Lets call it what it is. Its an S.A.R. tree

[sheepsnot]

S.A.R.? :-o

[dvdguy]

ah I love a good setup
AHEM.....


Some Assembly Required

It was worth the wait for that joke, Its one of my favorites

[caseydbell]

we put ours up to early to have a real one.

[MarthaK]

I grew up with a real trees. It's a family tradition to "choose and shoot."
My dad would shoot one down for us every year Thanksgiving week when he was deer hunting.

One year when I was in elementary school, my teacher was from NYC and when I innocently recounted my Thanksgiving vacation, combining little unrelated episodes, it caused a stir. For some reason my teacher didn't understand our family traditions of eating lots of rum balls and Dad shooting the Christmas tree.

I have two artificial trees that I put up early in the bedrooms and near the fireplace in the den. But I insist on a real tree for the living room.

[sheepsnot]

He actually shot the trunk in two? How many shots does it take? I know, it depends on the diameter of the trunk! 8)

[MarthaK]

I'm not sure Sheeps, since Dad never took me hunting with him.
However many it took, it was worth him not having to drag a saw through the woods with him along with his rifle...

[sheepsnot]

I'm guessing you didn't put it in the stand all blown to bits but straightened the "wound" first? :-o

[MarthaK]

Nope, Dad sawed off the trunk before it was brought inside. What do you think we are, hillbillies?!

[sheepsnot]

NO! (She tells me that her dad shoots Christmas trees and then asks a question like that?) Absolutely not! Here's a row of trees to shoot at.
:) :) :) :) :) :)

[dvdguy]

Look out! reveneuers!
(i'm sure thats spelled wrong)

[sheepsnot]

Hillbillies don't care about spelling anyway. You could just call them "the law."

[MarthaK]

Revenuers...the birth of NASCAR!!
(Insert Rebel Yell here)

I'm actually a Northern Virginia native, but never too far from my parent's WV coal camp upbringing.

Thanks for the target practice there Sheeps! I needed it...missed some.


:) :) ... :) :) . . :) :) .. :)

[Christy Carol]

I have never had a fake tree. Even when I lived in an apartment years ago I had a Christmas tree lot cut the top out of a tree and I had a little 3 foot live tree. I guess it is my own tradition to have a live tree since everyone in my family uses fake and we always had a fake one when I was a child (except one year and that was a scene out of Christmas Vacation, not to be re-lived again!!)

When I moved out on my own I just decided to have a real tree and have kept that up for 14 years now. I have gotten them out of the woods, pre-cut lots and cut your own farms. There is just something about going and getting a real tree and having that wonderful aroma fill the house. I get mine right after Thanksgiving (either Friday or Saturday, depends on if I have to work the day after Turkey Day) and keep it up til New Years. It takes alot of watering and cleaning up under it but it's worth it to me and I don't see it ever changing. :wiggy:

Now that the boyfriend and I have a new home we just purchased right after New Years this year I plan on having a HUGE tree in my dining room that overlooks into the living room. This is the first house I have had such a large area to put a tree so I am gonna go all out. I plan on it being as wide as it is tall!!

[sheepsnot]

I'm as wide as I am tall; can I stand in your livingroom?

[Christy Carol]

Bravo! You gave me my first biggest laugh all day long! :lol:

Do you prefer twinkle lights or the motion lights? I don't want to make you dizzy!!

[sheepsnot]

I can handle twinkle lights. Strobes may jumpstart a seizure!

[dvdguy]

or pokemon

[Ervserver]

They make toilet cleaner that smells like a pine tree why can't they make a artificial tree smells like one?

[sheepsnot]

I saw some pine tree foo-foo juice to spray on your artificial tree or your real tree when it's given up the ghost.

[dominick]

I've used some piney sprays in the past and, though they smell great, they lack potency and are usually pretty pricey. Glade has a nice line of piney smelling stuff each year that I stick to now. Aerosol air fresheners, the Glade plug-ins (available in Christmassy shapes), and some really nice looking candles.

-Tony

[sheepsnot]

What about those tree shaped car air fresheners?

[dominick]

What about them?

[Ervserver]

I've used some piney sprays in the past and, though they smell great, they lack potency and are usually pretty pricey. Glade has a nice line of piney smelling stuff each year that I stick to now. Aerosol air fresheners, the Glade plug-ins (available in Christmassy shapes), and some really nice looking candles.

-Tony

I've tried some of these and they don't last very long. I see on a tv commercial they(Glade) have some new candles this year so maybe they will be worth checking into.

[dominick]

The sprays don't last very long, but they're cheap and smell good. The plug-ins will keep a small room such as a bedroom smelling good for a few weeks. The candles I've been using are of the Thomas Kinkade collection. The aroma they produce suits me just fine. Those quick melt scented oil things are kind of neat, but I'm not impressed with them, especially for the cost. I went through about nine of them last Christmas, and they did put out more fragrance initially, but they don't last nearly as long (the flame or resulting smell) as the traditional candles. If you're talking about those little jar kind of candles, though, I'll definitely be trying one if they come out with a Christmas scent.

[Ervserver]

...... I'll definitely be trying one if they come out with a Christmas scent.



yes those are it, not known yet if there is/will be a Christmas scent. Will be looking for them

[elfworks]

i bought some stuff about ten years ago. comes in a clear glass bottle and has a red top. (no way in hades i am finding it to tell you what the name is) i spritz the fake trees once at the beginning of the season and it lasts til after i put them away.

i also LOVE the yankee candle balsam and something candle and the mistletoe one. deeeeelish!!


xo

[Ervserver]

when you DO find that spray stuff be sure to tell em what it's called, where you got it, and when you can send it.

[elfworks]

i will find it the second i start opening the xmas decor.

xo

[Ervserver]

i will find it the second i start opening the xmas decor.

xo



open it yet?

[dominick]

...... I'll definitely be trying one if they come out with a Christmas scent.



yes those are it, not known yet if there is/will be a Christmas scent. Will be looking for them

Found'em at K-Mart today for $2.60. There are several Christmas/seasonal scents. I got a piney smelling one burning on my desk right now... I think it's called "Glistening Snow". So far so good, but nothing really extraordinary about them. Seems to be a little slower burning, which is good. I will say Glade has done a good job with their Christmas scents. They have a new supposed longer lasting spray out this year, too. Hard to say whether or not it delivers what it promises, but my room smells really good right now!

[Ervserver]

Glistening Snow is a pine scent? ok will head to Kmart later and check it out. SOmeone said Fabreeze has a scent disc machine thing, not sure they have pine scent or not.

[Misfit Toy]

Artificial. I have had real a couple times, but I love my flocked artificial one, best Tree I've ever had. You can put it up and take it down when you want. Plus after a while, I didnt like the idea of "killing" a tree I guess :)

[Ervserver]

does the flock stuff come off easily?

[sheepsnot]

I'm sure there are tree farms that'll sell them live so you can plant later, right?

[Misfit Toy]

I'm not sure. For some smaller tree’s they do, that are sold in pots.

As for the flocking, not really. I've had mine 3 years now I think and it still looks the same as when I got it. When putting it up and decorating it, a little brushes off that you have to clean up and you might find a little under the tree, but nothing major. Once its up its all good.

Its definitely not a tree you have to worry about deteriorating over time, at least with the one I have and am sure for the others similar as well. Its a fantastic, full looking tree that looks like you just brought in after a fresh snowfall. Looks similar to this:

http://www.santasselect.com/cw2/assets/product_full/flocked_twig.jpg
http://www.lawnornamentsandfountains.com/ProductImages/ad-x-mass/863-b.gif

Closeup of what the branches look like:

http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/bronners/1099140-i.gif


Juts looking at those, the impatience level is rising :D

[Ervserver]

I like the looks of it, very nice

[Christy Carol]

Glistening Snow is a pine scent? ok will head to Kmart later and check it out. SOmeone said Fabreeze has a scent disc machine thing, not sure they have pine scent or not.

I smelled it a few weeks back and I wouldnt call it a pine scent. An earthy Christmas smell...maybe some bayberry in it.

I bought the Pumpkin Pie. It smells very good and like Tony said they do burn slowly.

[Ervserver]

looked today and they didn't have them. Will wait a week and try again.

[Christy Carol]

My sister looked in her WalMart last week and couldnt find them either. I was gonna pick up the glistening snow one today and couldnt find them again. They were on their own display rack in one of the center aisles but they must have moved them. I hate when they do that!!!!

[Ervserver]

Yes I know the feeling, once Wal Mart moved the Twinkies on me and if I hadn't spotted them a couple isles over I was going write to the manager.

[dvdguy]

silly customer you cannot hurt the twinkie

[Ervserver]

I bought a candle at Lowes today called Pine Wreath, it's a soy based candle and it has the most realistic pine smell I've ever noticed in a candle. Lowes has all their Christmas stuff out now.

:???:

[dominick]

The nearest Lowes is several towns over. It'll be a few days, but I'll have to go check it out. Aside from smelling realistic, how strong is it? How much did you pay for it?

[Ervserver]

a good strong scent, certainly not overpowering. Smells like a live Christmas tree. 23oz candle $5.97. I bought cinnamon sticks flavor too. There are a few others as well.

[dominick]

I'm on it! :???:

[dominick]

Since we're on the topic of Christmas aromatics, I figured I'd squeeze in another little review. Like I've said, I think Glade has done a fine job with nuts like us that like to indulge as many of our senses as possible with the Christmas spirit. My intrigue for new products, however, compels me to try new stuff each year. To cut to the chase, I tried a new spray air freshener. Febreze Air Effects "Fresh Evergreen & Snow". Now maybe it's the lack of circulation in here, or the fact that I feel the need to spray more every time I pass the can, but I'm liking this stuff. The smell lingers longer than some others I've tried, and it's a nice strong, crisp scent. Plus, the can looks good on my desk. Oh yeah, it was two bucks and some change at the K Mart.

-Tony

[Ervserver]

Thanks for the info...I will be looking for that.

[Christy Carol]

Since we're on the topic of Christmas aromatics, I figured I'd squeeze in another little review. Like I've said, I think Glade has done a fine job with nuts like us that like to indulge as many of our senses as possible with the Christmas spirit. My intrigue for new products, however, compels me to try new stuff each year. To cut to the chase, I tried a new spray air freshener. Febreze Air Effects "Fresh Evergreen & Snow". Now maybe it's the lack of circulation in here, or the fact that I feel the need to spray more every time I pass the can, but I'm liking this stuff. The smell lingers longer than some others I've tried, and it's a nice strong, crisp scent. Plus, the can looks good on my desk. Oh yeah, it was two bucks and some change at the K Mart.

-Tony

Oh I am so all over that. But it will be for this kitchen, I wont disgrace putting that lovely scent in the bathrooms.

[Ervserver]

Oh I am so all over that. But it will be for this kitchen, I wont disgrace putting that lovely scent in the bathrooms.


Gotta keep something a bit stronger in the bathroom for when Uncle Walt comes for the holidays. :o :o :o

[Misfit Toy]

We used that pine/evergreen or whatever it was last year, for the glade fan plug in and loved the scent. Had the smell of the holidays. I hope they come out with some new xmasy scents this year.

[Ervserver]

I'd like to see something in gingerbread spice