Christmas Trees

[Lightkeeper]

Should we or shouldn't we use real trees for Christmas? I have been using a fake tree for years. What do you do? Do you use a live tree, cut one down yourself, shop the lots?

 

[fromthe heart]

Should we or shouldn't we use real trees for Christmas? I have been using a fake tree for years. What do you do? Do you use a live tree, cut one down yourself, shop the lots?

We have a tradition of going to this one tree farm where it's our mens responsibility and now the boys too to pick out just the right tree. The little guys like riding the horse drawn wagon out into the fields to look for what they feel is the perfect tree...pictures are taken of the tree with them standing by it then their daddy cuts down the tree...then it's back to wait on the horse drawn wagon to be picked up. It's just a little fun...we've had artificial trees way back...no fun in that...After we get our tree we go to a nearby park where each business has their light display and drive through the light display...then we go to dinner and then back home again. No matter what the weather we will go cut down our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.

 

[Sunstone]

I've heard that hear in Colorado, you can take Christmas trees with a permit from public land. I imagine those would be young ponderosa pines, mostly. I don't see much wrong with it because it helps to thin the forests. The forests need thinning because forest fires have been so successfully surpressed during the last 100 years that the forests are overgrown.

 

[linwood]

Should we or shouldn't we use real trees for Christmas? I have been using a fake tree for years. What do you do? Do you use a live tree, cut one down yourself, shop the lots?

I don`t have an ethical dillemna using a real tree for christmas considering they are grown for that purpose and no natural resources are destroyed without replacement.

 

[retrorich]

I am 100% in favor of artificial Christmas trees.

The huge live one they have at the White House is a terrible waste.

In Cleveland this year, they erected a large live tree for the public square. The wind promptly knocked it over, breaking it in several pieces. So they went out a killed another tree.

 

[jewscout]

It's just up to your personal preference....my mom has a fake one now...personally i like that one better...less hassle.

 

[Melody]

Should we or shouldn't we use real trees for Christmas? I have been using a fake tree for years. What do you do? Do you use a live tree, cut one down yourself, shop the lots?

Since most (all?) trees sold are grown for that purpose, or they come from ethically harvested forests where it benefits the forests, I don't see an ethical problem with using a live tree.

We did for many years and then I started feeling guilty about cutting down a living thing for a week or two of enjoyment. Then we did the live tree where we planted it in the yard afterward but you can't keep them in the house too long or they die when you set them back outside. So now we use an artificial tree so I can put it up right after Thanksgiving and enjoy it for a whole month!

Melody

 

[Fluffy]

We buy a live tree and then replant it out the back after Christmas. We have quite a few out there now lol .

 

[huajiro]

I don't use Christmas trees, period. You can hang lights from anything and it looks cool. I think any tradition that revolves around the death of anything is horrible (such as turkeys and Thanksgiving)

 

[painted wolf]

yeah, the death of life because it is pretty... *sigh*
If I were to ever have a tree again for christmas I would use a potted tree, at least then It could live and grow and not have to slowly starve to death.

wa:do

 

[Ceridwen018]

I don't have an ethical problem with it either--like people have said, most Christmas trees are grown for that purpose. However, the instances you stated, retrorich, really are a shame. Big trees like that are obviously not intentionally grown to be cut down.

Painted wolf--the potted tree is a really good idea. Where could one get a potted Christmas Tree?

 

[huajiro]

I once had one of those....it is a great idea...after Christmas, you plant it in the yard.

 

[anders]

Now that I am too old to celebrate Donald Duck's birthday or whatever the season is supposed to mean, I don't get myself a Xmas tree. Ecologically, it would have been no problem, because a) the trees are grown to be Xmas trees, and b) they would have been recycled in the back yard compost. My main arguments against them are now that I have no place to put a tree in my current apartment. If I had had that space, it would have been occupied by another book-case, and besides I don't like having to vacuum up pine needles for ages after Xmas.

 

[Lightkeeper]

I don't have an ethical problem with it either--like people have said, most Christmas trees are grown for that purpose. However, the instances you stated, retrorich, really are a shame. Big trees like that are obviously not intentionally grown to be cut down.

Painted wolf--the potted tree is a really good idea. Where could one get a potted Christmas Tree?

At your nearest bar. They like Gin.
I like the potted tree also, I wonder how many years you could use it before it went through the roof?

 

[painted wolf]

potted christmass trees can be found if you look. I've seen them in some supermarkets and if that fails I'm sure that your local florist could help you.
If you feel realy ambitious you could grow one from seed. Nurture your tree till it comes time to set it free to live its life as a wild tree.... I know sounds a little cheezy, but hey 'plants are people too'. :jiggy:

wa:do