Pine trees are toxic for cats. I have three cats so we buy a palm tree every year and then plant it. They are not easy to decorate but you can get enough lights and baubles on them to be festive.
11
I love a decorated palm tree, probably nostalgia from my time living in CA. Also, there are palm trees in Bethlehem so it seems appropriate.
5
I used to buy only small tree s+ do not take any plastic netting (not mentioned in the article). Animals get tangled + die in them. I will look for a small, live tree this year.
Enjoy the holidays + give time with each other instead of plastic + throw-away 'stuff'.
12
be careful of mulch...be sure your landfill doesn't grind the trees with other shrubs form households that spray their greenery with chemicals that will harm yours...and maybe you as well if the mulch goes into the garden.
5
For Christians December 25 is the beautiful celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. For atheists and agnostics it is the time to drink a lot of booze. In terms of human behavior, the more things seems to change, the more they remain the same.
3
I have a goosefeather tree. Mini lights and tiny ornaments, and everyone who's seen it likes it. I use real evergreensn from Maine for other decorating - wreaths, table runner, etc.
5
The Christmas tree that was cut down for Rockefeller Center was 100 years old. Such a noble tree should not be sacrificed for a temporary viewing. That's a travesty.
71
We used to buy a "real" tree every year. It was a fun family experience to pick one out, especially on a cold night. But the prices kept going up, and the sellers insisted on cash but would add tax to the purchase price. Getting it out of the house after New Years Day was always an adventure. When my in-laws moved to a smaller home, they gave us their artificial tree and we have used that same tree ever since 2002. It still looks nice. When it finally "bites the dust", we will do whatever we can to recycle it and move on to the next artificial one.
9
The last section of this article should be the first. Hope people don't miss that. Every year, all kinds of news outlets discuss whether to get a real tree or a plastic tree. Frankly, I am getting tired of it. We have to get over the tree topic and move on to things that really matter. Air travel and consumerism. That's a start. Let's hear more discussion of things like that, and let's put the Christmas tree on the back burner for goodness sake.
26
How about not having one at all, if you happen to live in one of the less progressive states in the country, baubles, tinsel and lights are terrific 'camouflage' for that large marijuana plant that is just getting ready for harvest, even better, why not wrap some tinted grow lights around the plant so you and your favorite plant can really get into the spirit of the festive season. Once Santa has done his business with the tree, you and your holiday guests can help get rid of the bush in an environmentally friendly, and 'highly' enjoyable manner....how much more green can you get?
32
What about the transport-related pollution of getting a new tree each year & disposing of it? That consideration made us go for an artificial one five years ago. It looks quite real and we decorate it piece by piece every year, so it also feels like the real deal.
5
We have a Christmas “tree” every year that is never bought, never thrown away, never needs recycling. We group together 3-4 medium-large house plants and clad them with LED lights - a festive display that can be different every year depending on how they grow. Some may even be covered in flowers in December.
Any tree that is brought into your house for just a few weeks is artificial, whether you get it from the attic or the farm or the forest. Be creative. You don’t even need to use plants. Ditch the every-year-the-same Christmas habit.
19
Why does it have to be "Real vs. Artificial Firs"? Why not a different tree entirely? For the past decade or so my family has gone to a neighboring nature preserve to fell an invasive bush honeysuckle that acts as our Christmas tree. We get a nice tree for free, sometimes with red berries, and provide a little space for indigenous plants to grow. The only downside might be that we don't get the aroma of a fir tree.
20
What about a tree in a pot that ca then be replanted?
16
There is a third choice. No tree. The tree is far from universal for the season. You can decorate just fine without one. And get rid of a fire hazard or have more space in your storage areas. Let the forests grow, plant something green and permanent if you have space with soil and water at hand.
12
When you cut down a tree and plant a new tree, you keep the circle of lifeon motion. Plant tree, tree absorbs carbon dioxide and provides oxygen. Mulch tree after use and repeat process.
12
A real tree! Just one that's not huge.
Thinking fake trees are better for the environment is as misguided as thinking fake fur is better than real fur. The more petrochemicals (including plastics) we pump into the environment (and the toxic chemicals that are produced in their manufacturing - fake fur's plastic residues are carcinogenic) harms the environment for ALL people and ALL animals - billions of them.
Humanity sustained itself in harmony with nature (every facet of which involves selective killing) for tens of thousands of years. Since we unleashed petrochemicals in the past 100, our planet and everything on it is in peril and dying a massive death on a scale that is totalizing.
13
I have fond memories of going to our local tree farm somewhere in the California foothills (I was a kid so didn't care where we were going!) near the Bay Area in the late 70's and early 80's. We went as a family with the station wagon, hiked around the hills looking for the "perfect" tree, took turns cutting the base with the saw, then carried it down to the car to have it strapped on top for the joyful ride home. Good stuff. My memory of doing this once in upstate NY was not as pleasant due to the mud but thankfully the tree farm would come around to haul the tree back to the entrance for you, so still a great experience. Support your local tree farmers if you can! I'm in a tiny apartment now so simply hang lights inside and hang my ornaments on an 18" tall artificial tree and on lamp shades, door frames, bookshelves, wherever.
7
It’s not a perfect option, but here in Okinawa my family gets potted cedars from our local florist. I’m tempted by herbs and local trees; some locals look like giant ferns. That could be fun.
Cedars are not as easy to hang ornaments on. They’re short, conical; their foliage is delicate and dense, but they smell pleasant.
I do my best to keep one cedar healthy for Christmas. It looks like last year’s will make a repeat performance :)
It’s not easy. Past years saw our holiday cedars dry up in the spring. Our place is windy, so even though we’re subtropical it’s tricky to keep the water level right, and the pots do not accommodate much growth. Have to shelter them from typhoons too.
Can’t plant them. Like most folks in the city we have a cement balcony instead of a yard, and real estate is in high demand. So we’re committed to pots.
It reminds me of how Chinese girls used to wear small shoes to keep their feet unnaturally small. The banzai trees here sometimes come wrapped in wire to achieve a similar effect. Is our potted way better than dumping or wood chipping a temp tree? Maybe, but replanting sounds wonderful.
Our place is really small, so giving it room to grow is not great either, but it’s sad to keep a living thing small just for our convenience and a holiday.
Still, we go through this ritual for our son, so he gets a sense of that tradition even though he lives in Japan. Someday we’ll find out if he pines for majestic spruce or fir trees like many Americans do.
5
Buy a live tree and plant it in your back yard
15
We used to have a live tree or a cut one every year. Unfortunately as you grow older and backs and knees get weaker, it is more difficult to decorate with the lights. So a couple of years ago we switched to a beautiful and expensive artificial tree that has the lights on it permanently. We will use it from now on. Actually bought from the company listed in the article. We just add the ornaments over several days and it is done. Can even be done sitting down. Sometimes the choice is made as a result of real world necessities.
13
An artificial tree has been better for my wallet for the past 30 years - and I've only had 2 trees during that time, using the first until it looked so bad my family complained. Think I've got a couple of years left in the second. If you put enough ornaments on it, you can disguise the bald spots. People should chill about Cmas. They stress so much they diminish the fun.
11
We always cut our own on the farm and then replanted 4 for everyone cut. Our ancestors did the same and our youngest son carries on this family tradition.
27
Oh, the vexing problems faced by full-bellied environmentalists. They fidget about the environmental impact of Christmas trees at the same time 1.3 billion people on our plant have no electricity and clean water. Nice priorities.
14
Why do you assume those environmentalists have Christmas trees at the top of their lists of concerns? How would you know what they might do to try to alleviate the problems of other people in this world?
18
Why assume environmentalists have trees at the top of their lists of concerns? How do you know what they might also do to try to alleviate the suffering of other people?
10
Until I moved to my current town, every other city that I lived in did not allow real or natural trees in apartment buildings because of the fire risk. I've had artificial trees that have lasted ten to twelve years before needing to be replaced. I love the smell of a real tree indoors, but I've seen too many news reports of people dying in fires and the "real" tree contributing to or causing the conflagration.
6
For several years at the beginning of our marriage, we lived in a mobile home. A nice, new one, but a mobile home nonetheless. They are very vulnerable to fire, so we decided on an artificial tree. It was very pretty, and nearly 30 years later, we are still using it. This year we decided on a tree that fits our living room better, and bought a new one. The old one? It is still loved and will be decorated and placed in a different room. I hope our new one is with us as long.
18
Such hand-wringing over Christmas trees. What a joyless bunch. I’m sending you each a Christmas card — the paper kind, made from trees, distantly sourced and delivered by mail carriers driving vehicles! Merry Christmas.
13
Neither. We put our very modest gifts (minimalist, usually hand made) under a house plant. This holiday has long been due for a major overhaul in how it is practiced. It is largely an exercise in excess consumption fed by 8 weeks of adverting, which yields nothing but seasonal depression and debt. Time spent together hiking/walking, conversing, and cooking is so much warmer.
42
We use a waist high jade tree which has miraculously survived my care for fifty years. Small and cheery.
24
I always used to have a real tree and I still prefer them but holiday exhaustion led me to an artificial tree last year. I just couldn’t handle a live tree by myself anymore. You don’t, however, need two people to set up a live tree! Get one of the tip and tilt stands. You place the cup-like holder on the base of the trunk and secure it, then lift and pop the holder right into the base. Then you step on the lever and can tip and tilt until the tree is straight. I am a small woman and for over 14 years single handedly set up a 71/2 foot tree each Christmas without any help. Pines are quite lightweight.
9
How about not having a pagan at all!
4
Whatever you do, don't put those string "ice cycles" on your trees. They are an environmental hazard.
5
create yet more plastic which inevitably ends up in landfill, as opposed to 100% biodegradable wood? Not too hard to figure out the better choice for our children's and grandchildren's sakes, is it?
25
I want real needles on my tree; I want that Pine-sol smell.
The little burls and sawdust swirls that beetles do so well.
I love the sap upon my rug; the flammable debris.
Without all that annoyance it ain't Christmas-time for me.
19
I invite all of you to come to Oregon, pull on your rubber boots, slog through mud at a tree farm, select your own tree, strap it to the top of your car and hit a brew pub on the way home for a burger. It a tradition plastic trees just can’t deliver.
26
@Erik Goodfriend We've done it every year in Massachusetts. Instead of the pub, we frequently, snow cover allowing, have a knock down drag out snawball fight, all forur kids, one parent, one dog...the mother tries to stop it.
8
Because annually cutting down millions of trees for baby Jesus makes so much sense. How about we plant a tree instead?
12
@MS no trees or Jesus in my household, but the article clearly states that they plant a new tree for each one cut down, and in the interim the growing trees provide positive environmental effects.
34
@MS
They are already planted, all over the country. There is no "tree shortage" in the USA.
10
@MS
Where we live, the Forest Service sells permits to cut your own trees in the local national forests - they must be under a certain trunk diameter and within a certain distance from other trees. We are helping thin out the forest, lessen the need for controlled burns and helping the kind of overgrowth that leads to uncontrollable wildfire. Obviously, not everyone has this option, but it certainly is a win-win situation for all involved. (Now if I could only convince my husband - raised in a Jewish family who didn't put up trees - that we really don't have to cut down, transport, put up and decorate a twelve or fourteen foot tree every year just because we have a high ceiling in the living room!)
13
I was in Australia during the Christmas season a few years ago, I didn't see a single real tree. When I commented about why no real trees to the locals they looked at me like I was nuts.
A artificial tree is nothing but tacky. The only place they seem appropriate is in topless bars.
3
@Paulie Australia doesn't have a lot of water or arable land, so that makes sense.
18
Aren't there also issues of the methane release of the millions of discarded trees?
@AdaMadman
No, that is not a significant factor. It is a fear-mongering propaganda factoid from the Climate deniers.
6
Since I fought and beat cancer, I will not allow death in my house. No more beautiful trees cut down just so we can celebrate a holiday.
11
@PhoebeS What are you eating? Plastic food?
7
My artificial tree is celebrating its 24th holiday season this year. I acquired it after solving the mystery of my daughter’s yearly bout of severe bronchitis that set in around December 1 and lasted until January 1 every year for the first 11 years of her life. The pediatrician always treated her with antibiotics.
It was when we spent four days in the home of a Jewish friend - where there was no fir tree indoors - that I figured out WHY she was always sick every December. It was the tree. Mold spores in fir trees open up after a few days inside a heated building. She is very allergic.
We all have fake trees, and December is no longer the season of severe bronchitis.
28
It doesn’t have to be either/or. We used to buy live trees & plant them in the yard. When we got too old to wrangle them, we switched to using cut trees. When we got too old to manage those (and facing serious illness), we bought a 9’ tall fake tree with 4 sections from the wide bottom to the narrow top. That was 16 years ago. As the years have passed, we switched to using just the top 3 sections, then only the top 2, and last year we just used the top section as a tabletop tree. I hated switching to a fake tree, but it was the best way to manage decorating for the season. A couple pine-scented candles and some fresh cut greens help preserve the illusion of a real tree.
15
Silly thought: how about no tree? Since my parents fled the nest (instead of kicking my brother and I out of it) no trees have been used in the celebration of Christmas. There is no mess, no fuss, no decorating to be done. No concern over broken ornaments and exposed wiring. We stopped worrying about which domesticated animal might knock down, unplug, or otherwise destroy the tree. Gone is the fantasy that an overweight man needs a tree to plant presents under; I can hand my father his new flavor of coffee bean without any pretext.
Skip the trees and the headache - the "greener" choice is no tree at all.
17
@Matthew Wiegert Sounds like a terrifying level of boringness.
9
@SL True, but "boring" is my middle name. If a day on which people gather to share gifts needs further excitement I think we may deserve to embrace being boring a bit.
4
I buy a 3' live tree every year. After the season is over it gets planted in the yard. I'm looking at a Douglas Fir I planted 5 years ago as I write this. It's now 6' tall.
38
At a certain point in life you lose the allure (and flexibility) of wrestling a tree in the house, sawing the bottom off it, getting it into the stand (straight, no less), stringing lights to the critique of everybody on the sofa, watering it and then reversing the process with the addition of thousands of needles going everywhere. My artificial tree is great...looks real, lights up with variations.....its only drawback is the lack of real pine scent.
10
@Ponderer And the fact that everyone's thought when they look at the tree is "it's fake."
3
Over many years bought 9ft real trees. I Worried every day about fire and found the best day of the holiday season was when I dragged the tree out of the house for recycling. We were vacuuming up needles for weeks afterward.
Got old enough to buy an artificial tree and we could hardly tell it wasn't real. I stopped worrying about burning down the house with the tree and enjoyed the holidays a bit more. When we downsized we didn't throw the tree away, we sold it to someone who would use it.
We also noticed the number of holiday sinus infections and colds went way down. Who knew? We were were slightly allergic to the natural tree and getting rid of it made us healthier.
8
Aren't there also issues of the methane release of the millions of discarded trees?
Really, the only environmentally sound Xmas tree is one in a pot or in the ground that you keep alive and re-use each year.
I'm using an artificial Christmas tree that has been in the family at least since the 1970's and may even go back to the late 1960's. It consists of a set of wooden sections that fit together. The branches are green plastic leaves on twisted steel branches. It is held up by a folding metal tripod that can easily be thrown off balance. It is tattered, and ugly and my wife hates it. She calls it the 'Charlie Brown Christmas Tree', which I take as a complement. I love it. This is the tree of my childhood and I hope to pass it down to one of my children who will in turn irritate their spouse with a 'Charlie Brown Christmas Tree'. You could say it represents the Ghost of Christmas's Past.
25
How about living trees?
Each year we buy a living, growing evergreen and transplant it outside in the spring.
We now have various trees around our property and in various public spaces. The tree we planted when our eleven-year old daughter was 2 years old is now over 20 feet tall!
19
@Celeste They do grow really tall. I've seen live trees that have grown to 40 - 60 feet over the years. If you do plant them every year, great! But you have to have a big yard.
9
Nowhere in this article is mentioned the pesticides and fertilisers used to grow the trees. Where we have a house in the Morvan (Burgundy France) the use of these chemicals has made our water undrinkable as the surrounding well water has been poisoned. The massive plantations have destroyed the biodiversity and acidified the soil. Recycling the trees for compost is out of the question as they are wreaking with pesticides.
All this for a tree that will be used for 3 or 4 weeks. Another symptom of how are consumer society needs to be changed radically.
35
I have always liked and preferred real trees to artificial ones. We always had a real tree when I was growing up. When I started working I always bought a real 4 foot tree. I would recycle mine to be mulched. However as I got older I reluctantly purchased my first artificial tree a few years ago because is just easier for me to handle. As another comment stated a real tree does require two people to stand it up properly. I did like the fact that I didn't have to string lights anymore. Now that I'm retired I find that my energy and enthusiasm for decorating is waning. I've given myself permission to decorate as much or as little as I want. I can put my pre-lit tree up with no decorations. Though I usually do break down and put some of my cherished ornaments on it. It looks lovely at night with just the lights on without any decorations. When this tree goes I've decided that I won't be replacing it. Instead I may opt for some sort of small real tree decoration to put on a table top. Or a natural wreath as I've always loved the smell of evergreens.
13
@Angela
As an elderly single woman whose children and grandchildren do not visit, I no longer have any tree. Since I do love the Christmas smell, though, I usually have a fresh evergreen wreath nowadays.
9
People like me who live in wonderful wide-open rural areas should get real trees. Of course there are no trees except a few cottonwoods on this prairie but I can skip across into Idaho late at night with my saw and no one will be the wiser.
People like you all who live in blighted citylands should not even bother to get trees.
Instead just go to the coffee shop or disco or Socialist Workers Party meeting or Young Republican meeting or protest march (right wing or left, your choice) or cocktail party or whatever the heck it is you do with your time and look at their tree. I shake my head sadly at your fate.
But have a Merry Christmas anyhow.
9
@vbering
I watch the non-stop burning Yule Log on Youtube. Much greener than a real fire.
13
@RM So do I. I like the ones with music.
4
@vbering As someone who has lived in both rural and urban areas in the States and abroad, I must say you are off the mark--it is the blighted suburbs at which you should sadly shake your head.
5
Artificial tree. Used the same one for the last 40 years. Also don't worry about the drying out, fire hazard when we travel over the holidays and put the lights on a timer.
4
All metropolitan areas have garbage collection. Why not organize, as many urban areas do, a Christmas tree collection after the holidays, and chip them into a trailer, to be used as mulch/ground cover. The Scouts do it in my area for a small donation. It's an excellent idea to perpetuate community and connection with others. Rent a chipper for a day/week and feed it old xmas trees. Problem solved.
9
@LaPineYou're lucky to live in an area where the Scouts are so helpful. Scouts here come around trying to sell us $15 bags of popcorn so they can do fun things.
3
@LaPine Our garbage collection does have a two week period where they will pick up discarded Christmas trees. All you have to do is leave it in front of your house.
9
Team Real Tree.
In addition to the other reasons mentioned (our trees are recycled into mulch, so no landfill issue and we buy locally), a real tree smells amazing. No candles or spray can reproduce that wonderful aroma.
14
For the last two years, I have strung Christmas lights on a wall in the shape of a tree. Decorations hung from the wiring, presents underneath. Works for us, but then there's the use of non-renewable electricity for the lights ...
13
I have another real tree benefit to add. 20 years ago, I had a "cut your own" tree business; that was decades old then. It was successful. The only reason I quit selling was- other business directions started taking all my time. I was sad to close it; we had many friends we looked forward to seeing each year.
The benefit? Many of the trees I had already planted - are now pushing 40 feet tall. They form a closed conifer forest which supports an entirely different group of nesting birds from our usual oak- maple woods. The addition to our bird/insect/mushroom/etc species diversity is significant. Oh, and we're thinning them now - too crowded - and using the poles for farm building construction; great rafters.
None of that is ever happening from PVC scrap...
81
I worked on a Christmas tree farm in western NY state while I was in college. Xmas trees need to be pruned annually for some 5-10 years, or they grow crooked and people pay more for prefect trees! That cumulative labor, plus planting, time and land, along with transport (buy local!), is where all the money goes.
For the main reason of eliminating hassle, we’ve not done real or fake trees in recent years. We’ve collected decorative (real) branches from woods or vendors who sell real trees, and occasionally made wreaths of fresh boughs, which smell nice.
Where we live now, we are fortunate to have various kinds of pine trees in the backyard, looking at them living on is a year round blessing.
12
"There's nothing like the real thing, baby."
5
Mr. Smith, whose tree was chosen for the White House this yeaar says keep buying real trees so "... we don't have to sell the land to the rich people from New York City to make condos." You mean, like our president and his family who are wealthy, real estate developers from New York City? The irony is apparently lost on him.
76
How about the "greenest choice"?
Don't bother with a Christmas tree.
And Christmas lights too...
(Anyone old enough to remember "The Christmas without lights in 1973?)
If Christmas is all supposed to be about the birth of Jesus, then make it about the spirituality involving the birth of Jesus with less focus on the "paraphernalia" and gift-giving madness.
14
@VJR -well, yes... but... "Christmas" isn't really about the birth of Christ; who was almost certainly born in either summer or fall- but not winter. The date of Dec. 25 was chosen to compete with pagan winter solstice celebrations; which is what the tree was about, also.
Nothing wrong with celebrating Christ then; but- nothing wrong with just noting the solstice, either; and remembering ALL history.
54
@Greenpa
If they wanted to compete with pagans they would have simply coopted the 21st, when the actual solstice takes place. The pagans they wanted (and mostly successfully did eventually) to convert weren't that stupid. They knew when their solstices and equinoxes took place.
The 25th comes from Hanukkah, the real competition for the early Christians. Basically the Hebrew word means "they camped there." But like so many other Hebrew words, there's a pun. The last two letters (the "kah") connotes the number twenty five. Hanukkah always falls on the 25th of Kislev, a lunar month in the Hebrew calendar. In a sense, it then means "they camped there, on the 25th." Conveniently setting up Christmas that way also means that the New Year follows exactly one week later per the solar calendar.
2
The WORST choice of all is to buy a live tree and plant it where it is not native.
6
Ultimately, you have to consider that an artificial tree is plastic. That in itself is a reason not to use one. It's far worse for a plastic tree to end up in a landfill than for a real one to be composted, or just tossed into the woods to become part of a natural cycle, more or less. I always opt for the non-plastic choice.
38
Although we bought a fake tree a couple years ago, we still have a real tree. We found a six inch tall volunteer Colorado Blue Spruce in our front yard years ago, and transplanted it to our backyard. It is now about seven feet tall. It is so perfect it looks fake! We decorate it with lights. It makes me happy just to look at it.
18
Given the call in last week’s climate report to wake up and make major changes in our behavior and lifestyles, I don’t think this is the right question. Climate change is the result of a million individual decisions. Start some new “green” holiday traditions that don’t involve either real or plastic trees.
8
@Scott Williams No. See - then the land now used to grow Christmas trees, and support the farm family - would be either plowed - or used to grow cows. Um... way, way, worse.
11
Yeah it's fun having a Christmas tree but the whole ritual is a metaphor for how we view nature and the world. Just drive around your neighborhood after New Years or so and you will see those trees discarded and waiting to be picked up and hauled off to the local land fill, or with a little luck, to a composting facility. We harvest nature, for no really good purpose in this case, and then when we are done with it we toss it out. Yes a tree is not a sentient thing but still it is a little weird to kill something just to give us a couple weeks of pleasure in the living room, and then throw it out.
35
I have an artificial tree that dates back to 1996. Every time I swoon over a fancy, pre-lit new one, I think about old faithful in the bin in the garage and pass it by.
Real tree? That is a two person job and there is only one of me.
The green-enough choice is to use what you already have.
37
This is a wonderful example of an environmental economics problem. As such, the question is not what benefit, or cost to include, but to include our best estimates of all the costs and benefits, including the non-monetary ones.
2
Here's my complaint about Christmas trees and the whole season. It seems to be the woman's job to initiate and maintain the traditions we have adopted. I already have a job that it is stressful and demanding. The last thing I need is one more thing to do and undo. This year the Christmas ornaments are being donated and I am letting it all go. Never been so relieved, other than changing from a bad job to a better one for better pay and management. And, for the record, l never adopted and Elf on A Shelf; saw that for what it was up front.
39
Not the woman’s job in any household I’ve ever been apart of. Sorry to hear that.
4
We can't say that buying an artificial tree this year is a choice we're happy with. Our home has three sources of heat; oil, wood, and electric by way of heat pumps - some solar gain as well. Real trees, which we prefer, would with care survive six to seven weeks inside despite always too low humidity.
We'd go without, but our excuse is that the grandsons enjoy seeing a 'tree' in our home. Our hope is that we can make this artificial addition last long enough to offset the emotional and philosophical toll of compromising our values. Time will tell....meanwhile, I'll equivocate like crazy.
7
I use my 5 foot high potted bay tree as my Christmas tree every year, and I still can pluck leaves when needed to cook with.
Now that’s a sustainable solution!
61
@Dimitri: What a great idea! I've never looked up bay trees before, you prodded me to do so, on Amazon for starters...now I have to have one! I'll bet they smell nice as well.
7
@Aaron: I'm glad to have inspired you, Aaron. It took a few years for the tree to get to five feet high. Some nurseries around here sell them at bigger sizes so might want to look around (depending on where you live).
Since I'm in a mixed climate, with the help of a friend, we cart the tree out in the summer months and it invigorates it. Its grown so well I've had to prune it back (saving the cuttings of course). I have to say its not super fragrant, and that is the one thing I do miss about pine Christmas trees in the house.
3
@David
True, but cut one branch and there is a great deal of fragrance, even on a dead dry bay tree.
2
I trim off the branches of my real trees and use them as mulch in my small NYC garden. They conserve water and help maintain an acid soil for those plants that require it. Plus it smells nice.
16
Population growth is the 800 pound gorilla in the room in discussions of the environment. The world population grows 65 million people a year. That's a billion people in 15 years. The USA grows 3 million people a year as a result of immigration and their children and grandchildren. That's 30 million people, or the population of California, every ten years. Each additional person uses resources and creates additional pollution. Talking about Christmas trees is like talking about literature on the Titanic.
62
@Mike: Looks to me that this article was about Christmas trees. It's admirable that you are concerned about population issues, even if a bit of the track with political statements thrown in; but most people can entertain more than one thought or topic in a day, so there's articles on population growth and articles on Christmas trees...and seems to be room for both, for us.
30
or maybe the rest of the world shouldn't have to compensate for us consumption levels. we need to reduce the number of Americans and the rate at which our population grows. immigrants aren't the problem. American culture is
5
@Mike
I'm with you. This topic is still taboo to others. Please keep the message alive.
3
If 80% of people already have artificial trees, it’s practically a moot point that reusing it is now the most ecological thing for them, isn’t it? They could always send $75 each year to a land preservation society if they want to preserve the environment.
24
How about recycling real Christmas trees as road markers?
There are only about 500 year-round residents of Mackinac Island, a car-free state park/resort located between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan.
When the horses are taken to winter pasturage, the ferries stop for the season, and the Straits freeze, the island is completely isolated until the ice bridge is thick enough for snowmobiling.
The community brings their Christmas trees to be dug into the ice at intervals to mark the safest three-mile path to the mainland. Low-maintenance, high visibility, and eco-friendly!
(Google a little; it's a stunningly beautiful place.)
26
Grew my own from a seedling transplanted to a pot and decorate it outdoors. Soon it will be too big for the pot and I will plant it. Decoration is pine cones, bows, and sprays of wheat then I add some bacon on Christmas day for the Jays. Not a city tree or I would be giving the rats a happy 25th.
4
No problem here. If I want to cut one from my own property, I can. If I want to purchase a permit from the state forest 10 miles away for $5, I can. The hardware store in town sells an 8 footer from a local tree farm just 40 miles away for $25. The tree gets recycled on our own property as a bird perch next to the feeders until spring then put in the woods to decay.
35
It's either a real tree or no tree for me. This year, for the very first time ever, it'll be no tree. Spending Christmas at friends' house. And it'll be a real tree there.
9
@AMM, I used to say that too. Until my husband and I got old enough where putting lights on even a 6' tree was more than we were willing to face. Arthritis and dicey balance don't necessarily mix with getting a real tree into the stand, or keeping it watered. So for the past 3 years we've had a pre-lit artificial tree. My husband was VERY skeptical when I bought it, but even he realizes now that if you don't go up and touch it you can't tell it isn't real. (I'm not going to give the name of the producer, but you'll see their commercials on TV.) So, "never" is a thing that can change.
24
how about buying a small potted fir when you first have children or get a house and then moving it in and out of the house as the years go on and you can enjoy watching it grow also? that's my plan when I settle down.
20
@Isaac A lovely idea, except, eventually, probably sooner than you think, the tree will be immovable. Our little potted lime (just a year old) is already too heavy to move without two people and a cart.
4
In the 60's my mother would buy a white flocked tree. (What was that "flocking" made of? Were we inhaling the white powder?) All silver balls were used. Then a couple of floor-mounted spot lights with rotating multiple-colored filters in front of them were positioned on each side.
8
@Bill Wilkerson I love all-white trees. I just love the sound of your mother's tree and those fabulous spotlights.
I buy Christmas scent poo-pourrie, which puts me in a festive mood for weeks. I decorate my tiny apartment with assorted holiday decorations, put real Christmas branches from the florist in a large vase, tie a red and green ribband around the vase, and have a drink of vino rouge when I am done. Red wine is so holiday.
1
We have been using our potted rubber tree plant, now 12 feet tall, as our Christmas tree for 23 years.
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@Mark C: Not quite 23 feet tall, our non-fruit-bearing grapefruit tree is the same age and annually serves the same puposes w/grace.
19
Here in upper New York there are Christmas tree farms a plenty. Property owners get tax breaks for devoting a portion of their land growing the evergreens. While growing the trees consume CO2 and give off O2. When the season is over most responsible tree owners bring the trees to recycling centers where they're mulched for use in public or private gardens. It's a far cry from my city days where the trees were dragged to the garbage. That was heartbreaking.
58
We bought an artificial tree from a thrift store for $30 during the 2008 recession when we couldn’t afford a real tree. We have used it every year since. No guilt here!
43
@Suzy Me too, Suzy! I bought a nice green plastic tree in grad school back in the 70's. I paid $6 or so and my Mom used it for about 20 years--the "needles" started to fall off. I suspect it ended up in the dump, that's what they used to call the landfill. It did its duty well tho and lasted long enough.
7
Make it simple. If it doesn't biodegrade don't buy it.
26
Greenest choice is a Hanukkah menorah with led twinkle lights.
50
This article doesn’t even mention allergies and molds associated with real trees in the house. Nor any pesticide spraying. There is more to the environment than the great outdoors.
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@David Gifford
Exactly the reason we opted for artificial this year. Our oldest is allergic to trees. No more sniffles!
1
@David Gifford
I love a real tree and the smell. Unfortunately, real trees do not not love me. I break out in a rash when ever I touch the tree. So 45 years ago we resorted to artificial trees. We are on our 3rd and last one.
So our trees last about 15 years on average.
3