I was wondering this as buying real ones yearly get sometimes pretty pricey
Have always had artificial. My parents still use the same tree they used when I was a kid. When my wife and I bought our own place we invested in a good quality artificial and I expect it to last just as long.
Real trees are a nice idea but I’ve seen far too many horror stories about them causing fires, and even if they don’t go up in flames they still drop needles and insects everywhere. Why take the risk?
Option 3: we don’t buy any trees.
Real every time. I feel bad for the poor tree but nothing beats the smell of a fresh Christmas tree in December.
I use a real tree because I have cats that would eat the plastic one, and I feel that plastic trees are worse for the environment.
A real tree 🎄 The smell and the beautiful imperfection, that is Christmas 🥰
Real. But I live in a pretty foresty area and just go to the neighbourhood farmer where I also get my eggs from and my poultry and it’s not pricey and goes into the fireplace once it’s dry enough.
Real. Every year, my partner and I and other partners or friends are welcome to join us, go out into the forests and legally cut down a tree.
It’s a pain in the ass, it’s adventure, it’s a party, it’s fun. It’s also way cheaper than just buying one. I think we paid like $13 for the state park purpose licence this past weekend.
I have a tradition I made up for this, too. Every year, I cut a puck off the bottom of the tree before I put it in the stand. I drill a hole through it, label it with the year with a marker, and hang it from the tree. I think this will be our 7th year? It hasn’t been decorated yet because our living room is super small and a disaster and the tree is currently in the kitchen.
I find that the challenge gives purpose to time, and gives us excuse to socialize more in these dark months.
Fake one. Bought it a decade ago and its still doing just fine.
we’ve used artificial for at least the last 9 years now. Less cleanup, less expensive and easy to setup
When I can, I get a real tree. After Christmas, I trim all the leaves and branches off the trunk and put those in the municipal compost bin. I then put the trunk in storage and let it dry out for a year or two. Once dry, I’ll carve them into things like walking sticks, wizard staffs, etc.
wizard staff is so fire
Only if you’re not careful
I CAST. FIREBALL!
Name checks out
Artisanal! I love it!
That’s fucking rad
Thanks! Here’s an example. That’s me on the left, my husband on the right.
I made both that walking stick and wizard staff from old Christmas trees. And a close up view of the staff:
Sickkkk. How long do they take to make?
The walking stick was an afternoon project. Just carve, sand, and stain. The staff was a lot harder, specifically the tines that wind around the crystal. I made the staff off and on for several months. I built the tines up by cutting out thin strips of wood. Then I glued them together, laminating the tines up one layer at a time. Once they’re built up, I carved them into a smooth shape and filled in cracks in the epoxy. The amethyst is affixed into the socket I carved with epoxy as well.
I could have made the staff faster if I was really pushing it out. But just the time to glue it up would still require about 2 week to make.
none, my house keeps getting messy despite expending few hours of cleaning every week, no time for extra chores
deleted by creator
I gotta say…
This was a triumph.
I’m making a note here: “huge success”
Artificial. Didn’t even buy it. Picked it up from the curb and fixed it up with new lights
we have a saying at our house, ‘its not christmas until you you kill something’
thus, its always a live tree
Artificial. While it was a ton of plastic I can’t get over cutting down a tree every year. Seems wasteful to me. My artificial is exactly the same as it was 10 years ago and I have no need to replace it.
a real one, which are usually Norway Spruce species, which has the iconic signature tree look. YEA its annoying when it starts to decay and go brown, you just dump outside, its wasteful asf. and a real one you have to make sure it doesnt carry any pests with it.
The ecological damage of a single artificial tree vastly outweighs that of cutting down many trees (don’t remember the exact numbers). - Source
My main ask then because it does matter is how many real trees cut down is the equivalent. As said it’s done for me, artificial tree is up right now so moving forward it doesn’t make sense for me to abandon that. For those who don’t have one though, how long would they have to own the artificial tree?
I’ll admit I’m skeptical of the statement because it’s a common technique that has been used to prevent people from choosing greener alternatives. The great EV debate has been plagued with it, with people bellowing that the cost of mining the minerals means you should just drive ICE cars when in reality if your EV rolls over 15,000 miles you’ve officially hit the tipping point.
Same thing with new stoves, water heaters, a lot of pro-oil will claim “Well manufacturing alone means that you’re actually hurting the environment, you wouldn’t want to do that now would you?” and put the blame back on the consumer when in reality most of those purchases become carbon neutral usually after a year or two of standard use. Now for the trees if it’s 20 years… maybe. Even then I wonder about the potential of those 10’ fir trees growing into full adult trees and what we cut short by cutting them down. (Granted I know most are farmed now, but even then, it’d have be be multiple decades for it to make sense in my book)
Just went back through the episode and they some artificial trees may have less environmental impact if used for at least 5 years. However, some other things to consider, first where do you think the plastics in the artificial tree come from? That’s right, PETROLEUM! Also, artificial trees will end up in a landfill once they reach their end of life while a real tree is 100% biodegradable. Lastly, most artificial trees come from oversees (mostly China) whereas getting a live tree is a great way of supporting local businesses. Of course now that you have an artificial tree you’re better off using that as long as possible to minimize the environmental impact.
We’re on year 30 considering ours was a hand-me-down and we’ve been using it for 20.
Plastic is pretty much never going to be a greener alternative than a renewable, biodegradable plant. Especially if they can be grown nearby.
About 7-10. As long as it lasts you that long, you’re good.
