Your Xmas Tree: Real; Fake; or None;

[NobodyHere]

What Say YOU!

I have fake myself

[CBGLuthier]

1. Continuing my tradition of the past decade, none.

[DFW]

2. Real

It's a centuries-old tradition in Germany. Who am I to tell the rest of my family, all of whom were born in Germany, that we should stop?

[Wolf Frankula]

3. Probably none.

I keep saying we should get an aluminum tree, and paint it pink.

Wolf

[hedgehog]

15. There are pink tinsel trees out there, but I think they are all plastic, not aluminum.

[applegrove]

4. Got a tiny real Charlie Brown tree for my dad. My sister

is going to add those tiny battery operated string of lights you can get now a days.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. All Fake

A 7 footer in the living room, and a table top (maybe 30 inches) in the den.

When i was 9 or 10 my aunt and uncle had a tree fire. We lived 5 to 10 minutes from them and my mom got off the phone with my uncle and we got in the car to go over there.

A light popped (people used the big bulbs not the mini's back then) and the tree incinerated itself. By the time we got there, the fire was out of control. FD showed up a couple minutes later. They boarded the living room windows and had no gifts for christmas. Took until about February to get the house back to normal.

So. . .no real tree for me, ever.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. Tiny real and tiny fake

[Archae]

7. None here...

I have two cats.

[mnhtnbb]

8. table top 3 ft fake, but bought a live Norfolk pine at Lowe's ( potted) and put a few ornaments

on it, too. Unfortunately, it will have to remain an indoor potted plant since it can't handle temps
lower than 45 degrees--if the weather ever returns to "normal" around here!

[fleur-de-lisa]

9. None.

I have 4 cats in my house, three of which are ferals I adopted a few months ago (a young mom and her two kittens, one blind). My old man cat and the young mom wouldn't bother the tree, but the two kittens would have a tree down in about 30 seconds.

I had to move all of my houseplants outside because the kittens love digging around in the soil. I also grow oat grass for them, but can't leave it out where they can get to it. I grow it on the balcony and have to pick some leaves to give it to them.

A few nights ago I accidentally left the door to the balcony open for just a few seconds. The kittens destroyed about half of one container of cat grass by digging it up. Little piggies!

[femmocrat]

10. Fake.

We used to do a real tree for a long time, but it got to be too much hassle. I got a small tree for in front of the window.

[KMOD]

14. I hate finding pine needles months later,

but we still do a real one for now, for the kids.

[madamesilverspurs]

11. Fake

...but only because I'm allergic to the real thing.

But the ornaments are vintage, loaded with generations of memories; it sparkles merrily and brings many smiles -- and that makes it real enough for me.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. None. I have cats.

[frogmarch]

13. Small fake fiber optic tree that I

leave decorated and then store in a closet between Christmastimes. It's the only way to go as far as mr. froggy and I are concerned.

[haele]

16. Well, this year the fake tree is up - but it's decorated with

a 5 month old solid black kitten and a constantly being updated grouping of festive green and red balloons that were supposed to keep her out of the tree.

I switched from live to fake when I got married and we had more stuff and less room to put up and take down (and clean after) a live tree. Also, dealing with a live tree was becoming too much trouble, and too expensive. $75 for a decent sized fir tree every year, vice $75 for a decent looking fake tree that lasted 10 years before starting to look ratty, and didn't need to be cleaned up after. Want the scent? I would get some boughs and use them as a tree skirt or window treatment each year for around $10. Lately, they've been $25 for a decent collections of three or four branch trimmings, but it's still cheaper.

25 years of pets, and I've never had a problem with an animal (other than the occasional cockatiel - but they never did any damage) in any holiday tree - dogs knocking down low hanging ornaments with their tails don't count.

Until this one. She starts hunching up on the sofa like she's winding herself up, her eyes become huge gold and black and marbles, and then she takes off like fireworks up and down the tree, gleefully popping balloons, then hanging at the top of the tree gnawing at the small spindles at the top.

There's a reason we call her the Goblin. Maybe next year, she'll settle down. But we're going to have to buy a new tree.

Haele

[Blue_In_AK]

17. We have a very realistic-looking fake tree,

but I don't think we're putting it up this year. The kids have all grown and moved away, and we already celebrated an early Christmas with our youngest down in Washington, so with just the two of us here, we probably won't bother. We're basically just exchanging calendars anyway, so nothing to put under a tree to complete the presentation.

I've always said, Christmas is for kids.

[csziggy]

18. None - we used to buy living trees until we ran out room to plant them

We'd buy trees about 3-4' tall in pots, decorate them or not then plant them around the farm. We even gave away a few trees to friends who owned their homes so they could plant them. But we ran out of places to plant our trees - we need open area for pasture, turning trailers, and riding. It's been long enough since we planted any that two of the trees we planted died - one from my Mom running over it and another from old age.

My husband's motto for commercial tree companies it "Kill a tree for Christ!"

[elleng]

19. NONE.

Was REAL, and HUGE, when family was together.

[sharp_stick]

20. Real

we love the scent and as long as you maintain it there isn't much of a falling needle problem.

[Xipe Totec]

21. I have a REAL Christmas rosemary

Trimmed to look like a bonsai Christmas tree.

[IBEWVET]

22. Fake

but no ornaments, the cat hangs in the tree and would play hockey with them

[HeiressofBickworth]

23. Got too frustrated over stringing lights

so, daughter got a fake tree with built-in lights. That worked for the past 5 years but this year, one of the tiers of lights went out and a new string had to be strung. We may get another year or more out of the tree. It is a very nice looking fake. All the ornaments are Disney -- daughter/son-in-law/granddaughter are Disney freaks. I just hung all the little Disney characters; daughter will do the glass bulbs and other things when she gets home from work. Every flat surface in the living room has Christmas things -- snow men, snow globes, nutcrackers, ceramic trees, and three separate villages of ceramic buildings sitting on snow-like cloth. All the stockings are hanging above the fireplace (daughter, S-I-L, granddaughter, cats, dog, S-I-L parents, and me). There is also a little 12" fake tree, complete with lights, on a side-table in the dining room waiting for me to decorate.

[elias49]

24. Real tree, 3 cats, 2 dogs

and significant patience.

[rurallib]

25. Fake - we weren't going to put it up this year

but decided to put it on the porch in the window.

We gave all out decorations to a neighbor who was thrilled to get them. Our family is a long ways off so we sort of decided why bother this year.

[RandySF]

26. Fake

[Rhythm]

27. Real one

8'ish tall Douglas fir...
Decorated with a gazillion lights and an eclectic menagerie of ornaments that have been collected along the way by me, Lyric, and BetaBen.

I'd post a pic if I was at home, but alas... I have none on my phone at present.

[mainstreetonce]

28. Fake

Needs replacing

[Hoyt]

29. Used one of those old aluminium trees with colored lights for over 10 years.

[mackerel]

30. A little tiny fake one but not by choice. It still cheers me up.

[oldandhappy]

31. Put up my nativity and call it good. No tree.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

32. fake.

I am allergic to real ones. Six foot green fake. Husband the electrical engineer loves to string lights. Doesn't go as high on outside ladders as he used to due to age. I used to collect the silver bells from the silver companies so I have a lot of those. Have gone to LED lights on the tree. One year before LEDS were popular we had 1600 lights on a 6 foot tree and you could almost roast a hot dog over it
.