Fake or real Christmas Trees which one is better for the environment?

[stop the bleeding]

My lady and I have been having a debate on what type of Christmas to put up this year, and this is not the first year we have had this debate.

My argument is for the real/live one's versus the her argument for the fake one's. Keep in mind we are both extremely earth friendly

My reasons for are as follows.

1. They create a form of farming that helps a local family make a living and create something for that county's GDP.

2. Being that they are real they have to be beneficial environmentally in some way like creating oxygen or giving refuge for forest critters like chipmunks and squirrels.

3. They look and smell better in the house.

4. I don't believe in the fake ones because I feel that making plastic trees has to have a by product that can't be good for the environment.

5. I grew up with nothing but a live tree and I have never understood the fire hazard thing. As long as there is water in the bottom of the tree holder then the tree is sucking up water. You would have to go many days without water for a tree to be a fire hazard in my opinion, and this is one of her cons to having one.

I do have more reasons however they escape me for the moment.


Lets move on to her reasons for getting a fake one

1. They do not involve cutting down trees which since we are both earth friendly seems to ring true with her even though I have explained the whole farming thing to her.

2. They are cleaner and easier to set up. To which I respond put a sheet underneath for the needles, and from my experience of setting up both kinds of Christmas trees is that both kinds can go either way.

She also has other reasons which escape me right now as well, but you all see where this is going, that is if your still reading this.

I wanted to see what DU could do for this debate.

What are your feelings on this and does anyone have some links to some sources that would help out either side of the debate?

Thanks again and BTW Merry Xmas/Happy Holidays/Christmas/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah.

[JohnnyCougar]

1. Real trees are a fire hazard.

Get a fake one, and get a real wreath for the smell!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. they curb erosion

they make great mulch

buy local!


(from a Christmas tree grower!)

[corbett]

3. Artificial Which Is Used Year After Year Is Much Better - That's What I Do

[dflprincess]

18. Me too

I notice the ads now refer to "permanent" Christmas tress, rather than artificial.

I've had my tree for about 17 years - I did notice one of its branches is starting to look a little worse for the wear so, just like with a real tree, I turned that one to the back.

[Nicole]

4. neither

Get a living tree. You can plant it in the yard later.

It won't drop needles like a tree that has been cut down, which by the way is no longer a living tree.

[gordontron]

5. we did that one year and it worked very well

by all means if you have enough space in your yard buy a live tree. Make sure you want it around for a long time though.

[asjr]

9. When I owned a house we would get plantable

trees every year. The last time I went by the old home place there was a veritable forrest behind it and it really made me smile.

[Nicole]

13. I ran out of room to plant them

in my yard about 6 years ago.

I still buy living trees & give them to friends who want to plant them. I usually have several ask for them. Twice I donated the tree in Jan. to the city for planting in public parks.

[mcar]

29. That's what we're doing this year

It's a great option.

[Silverhair]

6. More reasons for both sides.

Fake is cheaper. Buy a good one once and use it for years.

I have heard that some vodka in the water will prevent needle drop, but I don't know about that.

Christmas trees are a crop. Cutting one is not in the same category as clear cutting a forest.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Fire hazard

My hubby would never get a real tree due to the fire hazard. Then one year, we had just moved in November and I talked him into a real tree for our new house just this once. He caved in. We got the real tree.

I called my friend who runs a nursery and she told me how to prepare the tree and what kind of tree stand she recommended. I followed her instructions to the letter. The kids and I spent a fun filled evening decorating our first ever live tree.

It was absolutely beautiful.

The next morning I got up, walked in the living room and found the tree laying on the floor. It was a mess. We had antique ornaments that had been in my husband's family for three generations, shattered.

We cleaned it up and put the tree back up. As we were redecorating it, it fell over again. I called my friend the expert and she came right over.

We figured out that as the tree had absorbed water through the trunk, it became top heavy and toppled over. We ended up having to tie it to the wall to keep it from falling over again.

The day after Christmas, I took that tree down and hauled it out of our house. I swept up pine needles for months.

We have NEVER had a real tree since. They are a fire hazard, you know ;)

[donco6]

10. And they'll put your eye out, too.

:evilgrin:

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. I used to work with a lunatic who once brought

a real tree to school for her classroom. Our custodian about had a stroke.

This same fool brought in hay bales to decorate her room in October.

She was not one of the brighter bulbs on the string.

[donco6]

14. That's funny, because we have a board policy SPECIFICALLY

dealing with this! Can you believe it? Basically says something like, "And no, you can't bring a bunch of hay or dry flammable trees in the classroom."

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. How about candles?

I was at a special ed workshop not long ago where the presenter, a psychologist, told us to burn scented candles because they were calming for kids with emotional problems. LOL You should have heard the room explode! Every teacher present was yelling at the guy. This 'expert' had never considered that the fire code would prohibit open flames in a classroom.

[donco6]

19. Ha! Yeah, that would be a big oopsie.

No open flames, anywhere, anytime.

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. The only fire we ever had (small one) was with a fake tree.

luckily, we were all sitting around it when it burst into flame.


I have real trees (since I've been married) and only had the first one topple over, because hubby tried to get away with a 25 dollar cheapie...and he's the one who wanted real in the first place.


Turn the lights off when you go to be folks. :hi:

[sandnsea]

8. Cloth or disposables?

Disposables or awful for the landfills, bla bla bla. Cloth use enormous amounts of energy to get the water hot enough to clean them bla bla bla. Diapers I mean.

You guys will be having these kinds of debates for a while, sounds like to me.

Since trees are now grown on tree farms, and we need trees for oxygen, and you can mulch them, I think they're a good choice. Maybe you would want to make sure a bunch of chemicals aren't used where you buy them. As to the needles, get one of those tree bags. You put them under the skirt and then just pull them up and haul the tree out after Christmas, er, the holidays. :)

And if you buy a fresh tree and keep it watered correctly, it shouldn't drop as many needles anyway.

I have a 4' artificial tree and I leave the lights on and just plug it in and decorate. My decision would be based on the patience factor in setting up tree after tree after tree, we could have avoided many arguments if we'd gone with the artificial many years earlier!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

11. I don't think it is really significant enough to matter to the environment

So I think either choice is fine based on user preference.

In our house we use a good fake one. The real ones are just too much damn maintanence for me to put up with.

[kliljedahl]

15. You forgot a holiday

I vote for real, just because. Forget the hassle, it's only once a year, & I'm an atheist BTW.

[niallmac]

16. I wish Martha Stewart belonged to DU. She'd know what to do.

We get a real tree every year mainly because we HAD to use an artificial one when we lived in Saudi Arabia. As you can imagine, Christmas tree lots were hard to find over there.
Now the family insists on a real tree. Truth be known, the artificial tree was just as pretty.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. Ther is no "right" answer...

too many variables.

With live trees, there are the usual agricultural questions about the best use of the land, water use, chemical sprays and fertilizers, land erosion, etc. And the amount of energy used to cut the tree, bring it to the tree lot and then home. And, finally, the disposal of the tree-- if it doesn't burn your house down, causing even more air pollution and use of resources building a new one.

With artificial trees, it's a one-time expense of energy and resources to make the tree and get it to your living room, with disposal only a problem after many years. Tree's probably made in China, anyway, and could be partly made from recycled stuff.

So, after all is said and done, I suspect an artificial tree is marginally more eco-friendly. It's certainly a lot easier to deal with and safer.

A few pine fronds or wreaths strategically placed are enough for the pine smell. Cutting them off of living trees is cheap for the wallet and the environment.

[greenman3610]

21. I used to be militant "natural"

even got real trees and planted them for
a few years. They mostly died. (try planting things in January)

Christmas tree farming here in michigan has become a
big time pesticide laced, overpriced (50 dollar trees)
business. I'd rather help farmers by legalizing hemp
and encouraging wind mill construction on farmland -
(which is happening here in the thumb..)

I'm a convert to the plastic ones. they work well,
inso far as being the pagan festival of lights
symbol I crave.

[Xithras]

22. IMO, real is better.

Aside from the fact that they look and smell better than plastic ones, real trees aren't made from petrochemicals and laced with cancer causing colorants and trim like real ones are. Tree farming also doesn't have the same negative imapct as strip mining, the method usually used to gain the material in the center poles of artificial trees.

Add onto that the fact that rapidly growing trees release more oxygen and absorb more CO2 than mature trees, and the environmental benefits of buying real trees grows even more (the constant cut & replant cycle of treefarms encourages a constant state of rapid growth). If you mulch your tree after Christmas like I do, the entire cycle becomes environmentally friendly.

Besides, letting my kids pick out a tree every year is one of my favorite family traditions. I couldn't imagine reducing that tradition to pulling a plastic tree out of the attic.

[kineneb]

23. Live trees are best!

Not a fire hazard, and they can be used for 5-6 years before they need to be planted. I even put real candles on mine; we light them only once each year, on Christmas Eve.

[dpbrown]

24. Real, they create oxygen while alive, and are completely sustainable

The fake trees eat up oil and spew chemicals.

If you live in the southern states, you can get a live tree and replant it.

[Yollam]

25. I like real trees but use a fake.

It can be used year after year, which is much less wasteful than cutting down and killing a new tree every year. I don't think there is anything really wrong with using real trees, but I'd rather not deal with the mess and fire hazard and disposal.

I like the smell of real trees, so I usually get a couple of odd boughs from the tree lot for decorating and it achieves the effect.

[Cleita]

27. For one I think live cut trees are dangerous.

I did do potted live trees for a few years and planted them, but then I ran out of planting space. So I have had a plastic tree that I used every year, except this one. I'm not doing Christmas this year. If it was toxic at first, at least using it every year should have lessened that.

The best Christmas tree in my life happened in my early years, when one of my roomates, who had lived in the desert, brought back a tumble weed on one of her visits home. She sprayed it with gold paint and we hung little ornaments on it that didn't break the branches. It was about where we were from, Southern California, rather than trying to recreate some crazy northern scenario that we knew very little about

[stop the bleeding]

28. It looks like most people are spilt.

The replies have been very helpful.