The "Real Or Fake Dilemma" Story

My childhood Christmas tree was always a real tree.

It was an ordinary day.  Getting ready for the upcoming Christian holiday of Christmas by putting our tree in the living room and decorating it.  Have been doing so for the past 50 years of married life.  I can still remember Carol and my first Christmas in 1967 when we lived in a rented apartment and had to drag our alleged fresh-cut tree up a flight of steps in order to decorate it.  

My wife's parents enjoyed a fake aluminum
Christmas tree for a few years in the 1950s. 

Can also remember the many years that I put the tree in the living room in its holder and then drove nails through the holder into the hardwood floor to keep our children and family pets from knocking over the tree.  Didn't seem to hurt the resale value of the house when we moved.  Then there was the other year when I bought a really nice live tree from a fellow I taught school with and asked him if he could deliver it since it was too large to put on my car.  Didn't realize he would be so quick doing it and later when I opened the garage door, I backed out of my garage ... right over my new tree.  Luckily didn't do too much damage to it and the part I destroyed I put against the wall so you couldn't see it.

The Angel that stood atop every Christmas
tree that Carol and I have ever owned, be
it a real or fake tree.

Wasn't long after that experience that we purchased our first real "fake", or artificial, Christmas tree.  Never thought we would do that, but we have been using that same "fake" tree for the past 15 years.  A small string of lights have stopped working, but we put that part of the tree against the wall and no one knows the difference.  This majestic eight foot tree has spent Christmas with our family and has carried over 100 ornaments every year as well as the original angel that graced our tree that first year of marriage.  How about you.  Do you prefer a real or fake tree and when do you put your tree in its stand every Christmas season.  Naturally there are surveys that tell the tale such as: 7% put their tree up before Thanksgiving, 24% put their tree up after Thanksgiving while the remainder picks other various days.  

The tree farm of friend Dean who operates Dean's Trees
in Lancaster County.  This farm is in Herndon, Pa.

Oh yeah, 2% put their tree up on Christmas Eve and my wife often tells the story of her dad putting the tree up on Christmas Eve and Santa would decorate it while she slept; that was until she saw him and her mom decorating it while she watched from nearby.  Well, in Pennsylvania, my home state, there are 1,360 Christmas tree farms, second only to Oregon, on 31,000 acres.  

Setting up our artificial tree requires getting it down from
our storage above our garage.  This is done by way
of a pulley system and using the car to lower the large box.

My friend, Dean, who delivered my tree that fateful day has a huge Christmas tree farm near Pennsyl- vania's state capital city of Harrisburg.  As for the advantages of having a real tree: buying trees from local sellers helps the economy, Christmas trees are primarily grown on tree farms and do not harm the forest, real Christmas trees absorb air pollutants and emit fresh oxygen and stabilize soil and reduce erosion.  

The tree stands tall in our living room.

And the disadvantages of a real tree: they only may be used for several weeks, some are grown with the use of pesticides and transportation costs to deliver the trees creates carbon dioxide.  Then again the disadvantages of the fake tree is:  the manufacture of artificial trees involves the use of a host of petroleum-based chemicals which may be toxic, the majority of fake trees are made in Asian countries and when you discard fake trees they can take up space in a landfill, except for Lancaster County where they go to a trash-to-energy incinerator.  So what would be the advantage of having a fake tree?  If you use the same tree for at least four years, its carbon footprint will be smaller than that of a real tree.  

Looks great lit with our angel on top.

And, for me, that triples since we have been using the same one for what seems forever.  For those of you who claim that you would never have a fake tree since there is no smell to it, you may be right.  But, we did find some stick deodorizers that we place on the tree each year and spread the pine scent around the house as a real tree would do, and without the sticky mess that some real Christmas trees create.  No matter if you have a real or fake Christmas tree, you will still have the same holiday experience of opening up your presents while gathered around the tree on Christmas morning.  Merry Christmas to all and to all ... thanks for reading.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.