Tis officially the holiday season. And for many of us, this means purchasing a Christmas tree for the arrival of jolly ole Saint Nick (but hopefully not the Saint Nick David Sedaris once described).
I grew up celebrating each Christmas with the plastic foilage of a I-pity-the-faux Mr. Tree, assembled yearly in the living room with the precision fit of Voltron, to form a sham of a semblance of an aromatic and grand live tree...trees that seemingly graced the living rooms of all our other neighbors (I think even our jewish neighbors pitied our gentile Milli Vanilli tree). My better half is allergic to many of the live variety of cut Christmas trees, so she procured via eBay a vintage aluminum tree last year...a fine fit in size and style for our cozy apartment that almost seems as nice as a real tree. And now the Christmas tree lots are about to open, and many retailers are displaying artificial tree selections of various shapes and sizes. We're curious about what sort of tree will grace the homes of our readership (or whether you'll have a tree at all, noting not all of us celebrate Christmas. Festivus pole, anyone?).
You just can't beat a real live Christmas tree. I love the smell walking into the living room in the morning, or coming in from work in the evening.
The fake Christmas tree of my youth started shedding its fake pine needles after its 10th Christmas or so... just like the real thing (except without the nice pine smell)!
Growing up I remember my parents had a variety of trees from the real, to artificial, aluminum, and white artificial. You simply can't capture the same Christmas feeling with an artificial tree. It has no real pine smell or actual color of a real tree. For me it is more practical and just makes plain 'ol sense to go with the artificial tree even though I'd prefer the real thing. When I had real trees you couldn't go out after Thanksgiving and purchase one and bring it home. I tried this a few times realizing the tree couln't survive and usually lost most of my ornaments because the tree would dry out and the leaves would turn brittle or sag down. After the 1st couple of real trees wilted and died I vowed never to go through that again. My boyfriend always tried to come up with another lame excuse we were doing something wrong - I asked every knowledgeable person in this area and they all told me to cut the bottom a certain way, water only such n such x's a day, wk, etc. With an aftificial tree you don't have that problem. It may not look, feel, or smell the same but it sure does last straight until Jan.,6. And there is no need to hassle with it once the holidays are over spilling dried pine needles everywhere. Every year in my building people don't clean up after themselves they leave trails of pine needles from their apartments alway to the trash. Mind you, we have long hallways the floors are half carpeted and half tiled and this can be soooo messy looking and just downright annoying. I think if you are going to have a real tree and live in a building with other family's have the common courtesy of cleaning up after you discard your tree.
"..........You simply can't capture the same Christmas feeling with an artificial tree" Cielo says. Well, hmmm, I thought that was a feeling that had to do with the heart...but, then again, I might be wrong. I do share Cielo's annoyance about other people's neglect of post-holiday tree dragging etiquette.
I have a fake tree. Why? Because for me, where I live, it is a true fire hazard to have a real one.
I don't have pics, but I pulled a large (already down) branch with loads of twigs out of the alley and I'm decorating it with white lights and small ornaments. It doesn't smell all lovely and pine-y but it was free, it doesn't shed, and it was already dead.
To: she eats lemons: I LOVE YOUR POST!!!
Tree? Puppy.
Tree? ...puppy.
Tree?
puppy.
I'm sad about the tree, but at least I have a puppy.
I'm not a very sentimental person. However, once a year my wife and I go to a tree lot. We spend alot of time trying to pick the right tree. I enjoy tying the tree to the roof of my car and the drive home. Send the wifey into the kitchen to whip up some eggnog, cue up some Sinatra Christmas on the iPod. The challenge to properly fit a christmas tree into a stand is the last barrier a boy faces before becoming a man. It is fun to sing carols, drink eggnog and trim the tree. The lights are pretty and the ornaments bring back memories. I think that is why I like live trees, the memories...
I grew up in the country, so it was always a post thanksgiving tradition to go to the tree farm (quaintly located on a mountain). We'd hike around and find something perfect. The owner of the farm would cut the tree and tie it to the car while his wife offered hot cocoa and candy-canes. Decorating the tree was another tradition: complete with the nutcracker playing in the background, and stories about each ornament.
Now the roommates and I get a real tree for the living room. Its not quite as elaborate a ritual, but the smell is lovely.
My thoughts are -if you are going to go fake, really go FAKE. The best fake trees I've seen: MOMA had a green bottle brush tree with branches sticking out at perfect right angles. My friend Tim has a vintage aluminum tree that refractst light like a disco ball, and Urban Outfitters has some great, cheap tinsel trees. I have a lime green one with a single red ornament on one branch.
I like the real trees. I don't know what kind it will be this year, but I generally avoid the blue spruces.
One year, my roommates and I brought home a tree we'd cut ourselves at the farm. We were very pleased with it--so much so that it remained up until MLK day. That night, we sat in the living room admiring our tree until we noticed that from somewhere in the tree about a million baby spiders had hatched and were crawling all over the nearby end table. You've never seen a tree so quickly undecorated and whisked into the dumpster. Yuck.
Doodle, that's about enough to make me never want a tree.
Eugh.
We are going out of town, so there's no point to a tree. I am going to Target this weekend to buy paper, and pretty christmas balls, the balls will go into a bowl on the table. That's about as festive as I get.