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Mary Chris
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Growing up we mainly did an artifical tree. After I married dh and I bought a real tree, his tradition. While Carter was sick we had to have an artifical tree. The past few years we have been setting up both.
Being resource conscious and wondering what is best for the enviorment I am trying to decide what to do this year. I hate to think of all those trees being cut down to provide us with an evergreen smell for a few weeks and then lying in the street waiting for pick up.
So what do you do and why?
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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Maryan
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Growing up we cut down a tree from our backyard on the 24th. So not being able to go home, for sentimental reasons I try to do the same thing now...
But we barely have trees on our "previously pasture" spot...well unless you like cedar Christmas trees...
So we get a tree on the 24th (way discounted) from one of the abandoned stands around here. Dh just sticks $10 or $15 under the trailer door (which is more than they would make from chipping it into mulch).
We did think about buying a tree in a pot and planting it... but the price was astronomical. But we discovered that it's cheaper to wait until summer to replenish the environment with another Christmas tree. 
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
A Lee in the Woudes
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Philothea
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nursing and typing one-handed
but they plant new trees in their place and provide jobs ... and real trees are biodegradable. fake trees are made in nasty polluting factories and will last forever in the landfill
we use an artificial tree for convenience  , but I think it's actually better (environmentally and socially) to get the real thing.
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PDyer
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We started out with real trees and went artificial the year my daughter was born. I balked at artificial for a long time, but it is more convenient and drew us into having a new family tradition we really enjoy. We set up our tree on the first day of Advent and use it for our Jesse tree. On Christmas eve we take down all the Jesse tree ornaments and decorate the tree for Christmas. There's no way we could use the big tree for our Jesse tree if it wasn't artificial.
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Patty
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marihalojen
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We have a tiny little artificial tree inside the boat, but I want a rosemary tree this year!!! I've never had one, I've always wanted one since I was 12 and received an Herbal Year book and they featured a Christmas Rosemary Tree. So I'm scouting the grocery stores this year, Publix has had them for 5 years running but I haven't yet found one this year. I think it will look lovely with seashells and our favorite ornaments on it.
On deck we have a larger fake tree, just a cheapy and it has lasted for years and years, I usually have to hang it from the standing rigging to keep it upright and any tree that will endure being hung year after year has a soft spot in my heart. If I go to plug it in this year and it doesn't work, I don't know what I'll do!!!
Oh, and Maryan, the cedar Christmas trees are the worst, aren't they? We used to take the horses out and chop down a cedar tree and haul it back behind a horse and then burn it in the front yard while we decorated a "real" tree inside.  They do make spectacular bonfires.
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The Mari Hal-O-Jen
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Bridget
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Real trees. It's a big, extended family event. We meet up with aunts and uncles and cousins at a tree farm. There is a hay ride, hot cocoa, people bring their dogs... the kids look forward to their turn to saw the trunk. We all pitch in to get an extra tree for my parents.
Last year, after Epiphany, we trimmed all the branches off and tied two cross pieces together for an Easter cross. (Nissa's idea.) The branches all went into a bonfire.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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Maryan
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marihalojen wrote:
| Oh, and Maryan, the cedar Christmas trees are the worst, aren't they? We used to take the horses out and chop down a cedar tree and haul it back behind a horse and then burn it in the front yard while we decorated a "real" tree inside. They do make spectacular bonfires. |
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Agreed!!
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Maryan
Mom to 6 boys & 1 girl: JP('01), B ('03), M('05), L('06), Ph ('08), M ('10), James born 5/1/12
A Lee in the Woudes
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lapazfarm
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Real trees only for us. And always a Frasier fir, which is a premium tree that also happens to be native to our area. Where we live, Christmas trees are our greatest agricultural product and I want to support the local small farms as much as possible. Real trees are a 100% natural, renewal resource. While they are growing they consume CO2 and produce yummy oxygen, and you can mulch them when you are finished with them so they do not fill up landfills. Last year we bought ten and delivered them to our extended family in Florida, where trees are outrageously priced.
And there is something about the small of a real tree that just says "Christmas."
As an aside, another benefit of the Frasier fir is that since our local wild Frasier firs are being wiped out by a combination of acid rain and the Balsam Wooly Adelgid (an exotic invasive pest),forest conservationists have been able to turn to the Christmas tree growers for replacement stock to seed and replant decimated wild forests!I say hooray for tree farmers!
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Theresa
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MaryM
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marihalojen wrote:
...but I want a rosemary tree this year!!! I've never had one, I've always wanted one since I was 12 and received an Herbal Year book and they featured a Christmas Rosemary Tree. So I'm scouting the grocery stores this year.
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I just saw them yesterday at Whole Foods for $10. They smelled wonderful and I want one, too! I had never seem them sold this way - it's a very cool idea.
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Mary M. in Denver
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folklaur
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Fake  . We keep it up for so long, I really don't know how it would last the whole time, as it is really, really DRY here in AZ.
I get real wreaths so it still smells good.
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Fuzzy
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My DH instisted on a real tree for the first 2 years. The phone would ring every day with a reminder to "water the tree" and since I had always had a fake tree, I needed that call. I used to tease him that he asked about that tree more than our new son! Then DD came along, and my present was a pre-lit artificial tree. I LOVE our tree, and get so many questions of "is it real?"
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 Fuzzy
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Mary Chris
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Philothea and Theresa you have made my children very happy. I was running out of time so I only wrote about one side of my thought process. I knew they replenish the stock. I had not thought about the supporting small business angle which I really try to do.
We will be having both again this year.
Bridget and Maryan I am drooling over the image of a big family event and chopping down your own. Maybe I can talk dh into that this year. We did it once about 11 years ago, our tree was so huge! It was hard for us to get the whole size picture out in the field full of trees . But this west coast girl needed to have the experience of watching dh chop the tree down.
When dh and I were first married we did have a living Christmas tree, but we had to leave it in Hawaii  !
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Blessings, Mary Chris Beardsley
mom to MacKenzie3/95, Carter 12/97 Ronan 3/00 and wife to Jim since 1/92
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folklaur
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Oh, I saw the small Rosemary trees at Target. They smell SO good. We were thinking of getting one of those for a corner somewhere, since you can get small ones.
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Carole N.
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We always have a live tree. Last year, we decorated it for Advent, and then changed over to white lights on Christmas Eve and placed the Christmas decorations on it.
I hope to do the same this year. But my Advent decorations went to a friend (our lights will not work in Wales). And my Christmas decorations are in the container. So I may have to start small and start with a small tree. I did pack a few ornaments away in the air ship (Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Nicholas).
I do love the rosemary trees. I saw them at Lowe's not too long ago.
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JenniferS
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Up until two years ago, we always had real trees. Then dh had to have knee surgery and I had just had a baby, so we had an artificial tree. Then we found out dh's hips were bad and needed to be replaced. I was so overwhelmed with that last CHristmas that we did the artificial kind again(we borrow my mmother's extra tree). Dh opts for the artificial again this year, but I am really hoping that next year we can go back to real trees.
Jen
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marihalojen
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lapazfarm wrote:
Last year we bought ten and delivered them to our extended family in Florida, where trees are outrageously priced.
And there is something about the smell of a real tree that just says "Christmas."
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That is an amazingly generous gift, Theresa!
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~Jennifer
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The Mari Hal-O-Jen
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marihalojen
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Oh, and I'm so pleased to hear that Rosemary Trees are in the stores this year!  I'll have to check Home Depot too, no Lowes, Whole Foods or Target here...
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~Jennifer
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The Mari Hal-O-Jen
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JodieLyn
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real.. most trees are cut from plantations that are run in a sustainable manner (replanting and all) and those that are cut on national forests are done within guidelines that IMPROVE the forest.. not harm them.
I grew up with artificial trees.. the old ones that you put the branches into a center pole (it was great fun putting it together actually).. then when I was about 12.. my step-dad took us to cut our own tree at a christmas tree farm.. fun.. and we went back and forth for the remainder of my time at home.. but my dh always had a real tree and it's important to him (and his dad) that they go cut them in the forest.. so off we go on our Christmas tree hunts.. as often as possible with my father-in-law.
I do enjoy it. And wouldn't waste the money on an artificial tree at this point. We get a tree permit on our local forest for $5.
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Matilda
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Does anyone know how well as rosemary tree does as an inside plant? Can you keep it in a pot or does it have to be transplanted? If it stays in the pot, do you have to set it outside at some time during the year? I will start another topic on this, but wanted to ask those of you who mentioned it here. Thanks!
Oh and...we will be doing both this year. The fake tree is a small one that we have had since my oldest child was 1. We bought it the night before Christmas pre-decorated to replace a fresh one that we bought (super cheap) that dried out so much it was a fire hazard. We haven't aways done both but would like to make it a tradition.
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Donna Marie
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lapazfarm wrote:
| Real trees only for us. And always a Frasier fir, which is a premium tree that also happens to be native to our area. |
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We love this kind of tree! It reminds the kids of deer antlers
We are headed to a tree farm after our major remodel work is done with 2 bedrooms this weekend(...why do we do this to ourselves in December, I'll never know...LOL...)but at least we have something great to look forward to...a beautiful tree, cold noses, and hot choc-co (as the kids say!)
God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 7dc
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God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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4Real Forums : Tea and Conversation
Topic: Real or Artifical Tree?
