I’m not talking about silicone breast implants. Although I have an opinion on them. What I am blogging about is the conundrum of real versus artificial Christmas trees.
Each have their advantages.
- Real trees smell wonderful when freshly cut.
- Artificial trees don’t prick you to death when you’re stringing on the lights. In fact, the latest of models have the lights pre-strung, saving you hours of torture every year. (A friend has been known to throw out her real Christmas tree every Dec. 26 with the lights still warm and in place!)
- A real tree, with its natural beauty, warms up a room more so than those made in China. However, they’ll really warm up a room fast if you leave a candle burning close by and those dry needles catch on fire.
- Artificial trees offer easy take down and clean up. No needles left behind to step on when you’re barefoot sometime next July.
- Artificial trees are available at any big box lumber store, department store or – yes – even the progressive greenhouses where owners now know they must cater to the ever-growing market of tree buyers interested in artificial trees.
- Real trees: If you go hunting in the woods for one, you might die.
Case in point: Frederick Dominguez and his three children got lost in the snow on Dec. 16 when they set out to cut down a Christmas tree near Paradise, Calif. Three days and nights spent in the snowy woods, and many helicopter and foot searches later, Daddy Dominguez and his kids were spotted and rescued.
“We weren’t prepared at all,” son Chris Dominguez said, after the rescue. “We just thought we were going to go up to the mountains, get our tree and go back home. It didn’t turn out that way.”
Sounds to me like next year the Dominguez family goes to Lowes for an artificial tree.
-end-
Land of 10,000 Perspectives 
I have had fresh cut, live and artificial trees. I like the cleanup of the artificial and the ability to decorate with out needle pricks and possible eight-legged, 50-eyed creatures coming to get me.
Live trees, the just plain suck. Yes, you can plant them after.. yes, you are saving the environment.. blah blah blah.. But I dare you to find one that stands up straight without any help from sticks and books and rope!
Fresh cut are my favorite for the smell mostly. You can’t bottle that, some have tried and I think they were high at the time, because it smells more like pine SOL than pine TREE.
I bought one of those prelit trees, such a fabulous invention. But I think this is my last year of that nonsense. I miss the smell and the pricks are worth it.