It seems that Americans are enamored with man-made replicas of natural items. Think about it,we spend buhzillions of dollars each year on astro-turf, I can't believe it's not butter and silicon implants. Yet perfectly good renditions of these items exist in the natural world; grass, butter and boobs.<br><br>To show my devotion to Mother Nature and because I think it's ton's more fun for the kids, we always get a real Christmas Tree.<br><br>Anybody out there devoted to an artificial tree?

Devoted.... not devoted.<br>But RealMom and I were talking last week about it, and realized over the 4-5 years of having the fake tree, it has saved us loads. Loads of money (4-5 years X $50 -$70 for a tree), time & headache (just grab it out of the attic- Saturday after Thanksgiving- and go). Now, before the guilt throwers show up... We still go to several local tree farms (real ones- cut your own tree kind) and wander around, soak up the atmosphere & do all they have to offer (except cut down & buy a tree). It works out nicely, I can focus on taking pictures rather than keeping the herd from cutting each other down with the monster hack saws, chasing the kids through the forest & dragging a tree 5 miles by hand.<br>When Christmas is over (usually the day after), RealMom has that thing broken down & boxed up by night....(no worry about proper disposal or recycling it) back to the attic with the other decorations & we can start getting ready for the next celebrations (Son B-Day 26th, New years, Daughter b-day 2nd, RealMom's birthday 9th & the SuperBowl). Things never slow down at our shack.

Seems like you've got the best of both worlds. That's a full dance card.

We tried a real tree last year, at my wifes demandrequest. I hated the work and cost and hated the idea of cutting down a perfectly good tree that could be more productive in the forest than in my house. Turns out she was miserably alergic.<br><br>This year we pulled out the pre-lit tree and had the house festive in about an hour. I will still take the family to a farm and we'll probably buy a real wreath, but I just can't justify the whole tree.<br><br>(but fake grass, butter and boobs are not for me.)

Because we're high-tech in this household we have a fiberoptic tree. The big advantages are that it goes up in less than a minute (and it's a 7 footer) and has even lighting. We have options of whether we want all white of colored patterns to cycle on it. It's still green and looks normal when it's unplugged, but turn the lights on and you've got a disco dance floor in the living room.<br><br>Since the fiber's run by LEDs, it actually does save us a lot of money.<br><br>If we'd ever consider getting a real tree, the cats would be all over it and we'd probably need to sell the house.

I guess this explains why, while upright in the living room, our tree remains devoid of decorations. I haven't even found the lights yet. No sweat because I like to leave the tree up until at least the Epiphany which is sometime in late April. Just kidding it's March, my wife's a priest. Ha, got you agin it's the day after the Horns beat the crud out of Ohio State!<br><br>Sorry I had an energy drink earlier.

about a decade back, I was living alone in a huge apartment and inherited my parents' Christmas Tree as a way to excuse getting a new one. Well, I figured that since it added some greenery to my living room and I didn't need that area anyway, I left it up through Easter.<br><br>By the way, Epiphany = 12th Night. We've been trying to have a 12th Night part at our home, but it hasn't fit into a convenient weekend since we've been married. Two years ago we substituted with a First Fortnight party and this year I think we're running with a 10th Day of Christmas theme. Everyone has to bring something or dress up like something that is from Day 10 and lower.

That's a good idea, we have also tried with the 12th night party but it's ben spotty.. I think this year we may throw a boxing day party.

We've already established that I'm one Neurotic Sumbich... so hell yea it's an artificial tree! I take hours making sure the lights and limbs are just right... and then the ribbons and ornaments are as evenly spread as possible... My brother calls it the Mall Tree because everything matches. (Currently Blues, Silver, and White decorations-I change it every 3 years or so.)<br><br><br>Here's a tip for those with limited space. With the artificial tree, you can use just half of it, particularly the large bottom branches. This allows you to push it up closer to a wall so the footprint isn't quite as large. It still looks great but gives you more room to move around. The bottom 3 rows of our tree (pictured) has no branches on the back side.<br><br>Crafty tip: We had a flooded basement a couple of years ago, and trashed part of our tree... I've used the branches that weren't damaged as over the door type decorations, as well as some for the porch. Add a bow, and some ornaments... tada! Very cool, and very cheap. Also gives those of you with tons o' ornaments you can't get rid of an extra place to display them. So if ya gotta friend that's tossin' their old artificial tree... might be worth snaggin' it, for parts.

Nice bows dude.

Whatever. Your wife digs it I bet! HA! Fine, here's a more manly idea for ya... Probably Definitely won't happen this year, but we bought a 2nd tree last year (day after Christmas) and I have plans to make it a Nightmare Before Christmas tree... complete with black ribbons and skulls along with an 8' Jack Skellington standing next to it. (Jack was a puppet costume a couple Halloweens back. He is now retired as a decoration.)

Wow, I am impressed. Our Artificial tree doesn't look anything like that. Our tree looks so nice on the box, but I want the people who took that picture to tell me how to get my branches to look that way. It is almost pathetic how many spots look bare after a lot of time checking all the branches and positioning them in the right way. It definitely does not look like your tree.

Tis my tree... seriously, just takes a LOT o' time. I gotta spread each lil' twig on every branch for each layer. I add the layer, then add lights to that layer. Repeat... About 2/3rds of the way up, I start gettin' a little tired of doing it. The ribbons are a bit irritating unrolling and shaping them just right. But adding the ornaments is fun (because then I'm almost done). My wife helps spread the branches, but she pretty much lets me do the rest (ok, so I sort of make it impossible to help)... But she always loves the results. (ok, so she might just be saying that, but she's always convincing) And to me it's all worth it. Wish I had more room and more time to do even more really.<br><br>Just gotta defend my ManCard sometimes since I love to decorate so much.

Paging Martha Stewart....Is Martha in the house..???

Although I have fond memories of real Christmas trees (oh that fresh pine scent), and I understand the purpose of Christmas tree farms (genetic experiments gone awry), I'm not a fan of deforestation.<br><br>My wife and I even tried to keep a live tree for a few years until one year we began decorating and then it yellowed and fell apart before our eyes, as if it were paying homage to A Charlie Brown Christmas.<br><br>So for the past few years we've been using a smaller fiber-optic tree. We decorate it as well with as many ornaments we can before it doubles over like a sick child who's eaten too many cookies and washed them down with too much egg nog.<br><br>We've got nothing on Nik's beautiful tree, but it brightens our holiday along with the rest of our decor.<br><br>And speaking of metaphorically phallic tree wars (never a wrong time to reference Rush):<br><br>There is unrest in the forest, there is trouble with the trees, for the maples want more sunlight, and the oaks ignore their pleas...<br>

Growing up, we always had a fake tree. It was easy to put up, and as I got to be in high school, I wound up doing it myself every year. When my husband and I first got married, we never lived anywhere that was big enough for an actual full-sized tree, so we would buy the little mini potted trees. The original idea was to only ever buy one, and keep it....but I managed to kill it every year.<br><br>This year, we are in the middle of moving, so we don't have a tree (and I don't foresee one going up this year). But I think we will go artificial, once we have the space and the time, for the money, time, sanity, and potential safety reasons. Plus, I don't like the idea of cutting down a perfectly good tree (as mentioned previously), or vacuuming pine needles. If we miss the pine scent, we can buy a live wreath, or burn a pine-scented candle...

Here in the Pacific Northwest it's pretty much sacralige to have a fake tree. Especially since there are SO many tree farms and real trees are biodegradable. Plus they're cheap, we're talking $15-$20 max.<br><br>We've always gotten real ones. However, we'll probably skip the tree altogether this year since our kids are in the crazy climb everything tear everything down stage. I thought about getting a fake one this year for that very reason, but after attending a Christmas party where they had a tree I quickly realized that was a bad idea.

The Pacific Northwest in December is amazing. I will always remember a ski trip that I took to Oregon in December. All of the magnificent pine trees were covered in a coat of snow. It was like something out of a movie. Really beatiful.

Oh, I have a story...<br><br>As a Northeast snob, we *always* had real trees growing up...in fact, we always went out to the farm and cut down our own using our bare hands. Now, however, I am stuck living in the Mid-Atlantic region, and as it turns out, it's really hard to find Christmas tree farms in this area.<br><br>Nonetheless, last year I was bound and determined to cut down my own tree with my new daughter in tow, and re-start the family tradition. So my wife dutifully went on the Internet and found a tree farm that was a mere 1.5 hour drive from our house. So we all pile in to the car on a Saturday afternoon, load up the Christmas CD's, and start driving.<br><br>We arrive at the tree farm and discover that it is actually, like, some dude's house...and he's basically growing a bunch of trees in his side yard and selling them.....right next to the above ground pool and the giant C-Band satellite dish (I have photos to prove this). He also invites us into his house to look at the massive train set, which consisted entirely of those villages that you can buy at the local Hallmark store or whatever.<br><br>At this point, my wife and I are just giving each other knowing stares and trying to hold in our laughter.<br><br>We load up our daugther into a wagon, and start trudging through this dude's side yard. We quickly discover that the trees are a very odd variety. They looked like trees that might be used for landscaping, not for use as a Christmas tree. But, finally, after much searching, we do eventually find a few Douglas Firs. Actually, we found a pretty darn nice Douglas Fir. We cut that sucker down (It's a CROP people!!), buy the special $40 stand, and haul everything home.<br><br>We proudly install our new REAL Christmas tree at home, fill the stand with water and the special tree food, and enjoy.<br>We go to North Carolina for Christmas day...and return maybe a week later to prepare for our Big Holiday Party.<br><br>When we return home, the tree ain't lookin' so good. My wife goes over to it and just barely brushes against one of the branches. EVERY single needle on that branch immediately falls off. I swear, I have never seen anything like it in my life. Words can not describe the absurdity of the situation. Soon, the floor is completely blanketed with millions of pine needles, and the tree is basically completely bare.<br><br>For our holiday party, we replaced the actual tree with a computer slide show of what our tree used to look like.<br><br>It made for a good story.

That is truly a charlie brown christmas tree!

You scared it!

Good thing nobody smokes in the house.

Have you ever seen a christmas tree on fire? It's amazing!<br><br>When my wife and I had been dating for a while, as well as after we were married, but still living in Florida, we'd try to divide time between our two families around the holidays (provided I wasn't on a trip working).<br><br>My wife is a pyro. So are some of the other people in her family, including her father--LOL.<br><br>Her parents' house has a massive fireplace which was always lit on christmas morning--regardless of the outside air temperature. After the the presents were opened, my father-in-law would snip a few branches off the tree and place them in the fireplace one at a time.<br><br>The tree was still green, but had dried out a little bit as it had been cut a few weeks before. When he'd place the branch in the fireplace, he'd hurry to shut the glass at the front of the fireplace and get back. The fire would get just ridiculous hot and intense for about 15 seconds, then die back down after the needles had all burned. It's amazing and funny to watch, but at the same time, I'm so fearful now of having a tree in my own house. I still do, but it goes to the curb not long after Christmas. I just can't stand taking the chance any longer than that...

that is freakin' hilarious.

What the hell is that? Brilliant. You can't make this crap up.