Sounds like the title of the next Bond movie...
Anyhow, both WH and I grew up in homes where real Christmas trees were a staple of the holiday experience. When my brothers and I were very young, our father used to take us out into the bush to cut down our tree. As we got older, and that errand became more difficult to manage, we would get our tree from one of the local tree farm sales lots, or from Big Chain Grocery Store, or from Colourful University's forestry students, or wherever was most convenient. What was important was that the tree was always real. (We did have one year when we took the whole tree thing in an entirely different direction, but that's a story for another day. So is the story of the year that MU and I stole the Christmas tree...)
In the three Christmases that WH and I have spent together, we have put up a real tree, much to the great delight of our cats, and much to the distress of WH's allergies. We would never have considered an artificial tree; it just ran against every idea either of us have of what Christmas should look like in our home.
But a number of things have come to light in the last couple of years:
- WH's parents, and his sister and brother-in-law, made the switch to artificial.
- Middle Brother made the switch to artificial.
- Friends of ours bought an aritifical tree this year that looks FANTASTIC (and very real!) at a really reasonable price.
- I got more than normally annoyed at how many pine needles I was still finding all over the house in July and August.
But you know, I just have this feeling that we're going to make the switch. Maybe, when we're in a bigger house and have children, we'll switch back, and maybe we won't. We'll have to see how this first year goes...
I think that we both know that real or fake isn't actually that important, and didn't actually play as big a role in our childhood Christmas traditions as we think that it did. And we'll inevitably discover that our Christmas is as wonderful and memorable with an artificial tree.
But isn't it funny the things that you hold on to?
7 comments:
WH might not be allergic to pine -- the long-needled ones. MB is allergic to spruce...
that was fun, that tree-robbery.
Which one fits in the piano?
At least with an artificial tree, you know exactly how big it is. No need to trim if it's too tall, etc...
We have an artificial with lights already attached. It's awesome. Cuts down considerably on the cursing - the lights are always the hardest thing to get done properly on a tree. Unless you were my mother, whose favourite holiday obsession was the tinsel....but that's for another day.
I HEART my real tree!!!!
Although when we lived in tiny apartements we used a fake 3 ft one .... which we still have:)
We have artificial because living in an apartment we found it easier. The ONE thing I miss about real trees is the lack of smell. Perhaps you could find a nice 'tree' smell to add to your house if that is something you don't want to miss out on.
We caved and got an artificial tree that also has lights on it already. LOVE IT! There is joy when putting up the tree now instead of cursing at twisted balls of tree lights and stray pine needles. Give in...come to the dark side! :)
I must ditto Julies comment. We switched 3 years ago and the only thing we miss is the tree smell...and the only hassle is storing it during the rest of the year. It's a breeze to set up and no worries about dying evergreens in my living room. I used to fret SO much as the real tree started (continued) to die, wondering if I was keeping the lights on too often during the day, whether it was taking up water, etc. that it kind of spoiled the whole experience. Now I leave the lights turned on ALL DAY LONG!!!
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