Do you prefer real or artificial Christmas trees? Why?

I prefer REAL Xmas trees...For over 35 years we have purchased fresh, REAL Xmas trees, usually Canadian Fir or similar, they are lush, fragrant and beautifully shaped.

We use an artificail tree because my 3 cats are going to try to climb it. I just know it. I do not want to be picking up pine needles.

To tell the truth, for the past 8 years my husband and I have always put up an artificial tree, since this was the very first tree we ever bought when we first got married. It was a nice large tree, with a tree top just a bit too long for our small apartments at the time. The tree accompanied us through three different moves to new homes in different places across two continents.

Finally, during our last big move last summer, we detected a small (or maybe not so small) family of field mice that had taken over our cardboard box inhabiting our Christmas tree. Branches were teeming with mouse babies, feces, and bitten off pine needles. That was the last day of our big, old, fake Christmas tree.

Then last Christmas we spent the holidays with close friends of ours who had invested in a real tree fresh from the local tree farm. The smell of the tree brought back many childhood memories from days spent at my grandmother’s house in Germany. Every Christmas she would put up a small pine tree on Christmas Eve (German tradition is that the Christkind (Christ child) brings the tree on the eve of Christmas before the presents are opened) and decorate it with lovely wooden ornaments and gingerbread cookies.

The scent of the tree brought some tears to my eyes, as I had lost my grandparents just a few years earlier and missed the sweet smells of my grandmother’s holiday baking mixed with the cozy atmosphere of her home that just sprouted Christmas spirit. That Christmas I swore that from then on I would only put up real trees each year to honor my grandparents’ memory, which was still strongly present in my heart even in their absence. This year my husband and I have purchased our very first real tree and our kids have just finished decorating it yesterday evening.At the top of the tree my son hung a picture frame ornament containing a small black and white picture of two of the most important people that have enriched my life: my grandparents.

And needless to say, this morning when we woke up, our house was bathed in the lovely natural smell only a real Christmas tree can provide.

Real trees are lovely; no doubt, but an artificial tree is so much more simple, cleaner and safer. You don't have the pine needles all over the carpet - those things hurt when you're barefoot! The trees are usually pre-lit and an artificial tree doesn't dry out; which decreases the chances of having a house fire.

The pine spells lovely and very much like the holidays should, but I just buy a nice Yankee Candle or make my own and call it a day. Of course, part of the reason I prefer an artificial tree is pure laziness! There, I've said it.

I'm lazy when it comes to decorating my tree! The tree we have is not even really a tree. It's meant to be a decoration on it's own.It's a scraggly little rustic looking tree with a black bear and her cub attached to it.

It kind of looks like they are just sitting underneath it. So, I strung lights onto it and added some other decorations. I never remove the decorations from year to year -- least I haven't had to yet!

When I'm ready for it, I take it out of the storage shed, pop off the plastic and plug it in! A little straightening of the star and we're good to go -- 10 minutes at the most, including lugging it into the house. When I'm done, I unplug it, put the plastic back on and store it away for next year.

:).

We use an artificial pre-lit tree. It's just what we've always used. My mother always told me they were to much of a mess and if you put lights on one there is a greater risk of fire.

I'm not saying this is true. It's just what I've always heard so it's never occurred to me to use anything else.

When I was young and there were plenty of pine trees around our area I would prefer real Christmas trees for I love the smell of pine but now that there are less trees and I don't want to cut trees just to have a real Christmas tree, I have learned to enjoy the artificial ones. It is more environment friendly and my two daughters still love it and enjoy decorating it.

I prefer an artificial tree. Yes real pine trees smells good and looks better for a Christmas tree but I don't want to increase the demand of cutting pine trees just for Christmas. I even want to suggest to people to use an artificial tree instead so that sellers won't have to cut trees contributing to hazardous effect it has towards our environment.

You can also save by using artificial Christmas trees. You can reuse it every year so there's no need to purchase a tree every December. So aside from helping mother nature, you're also saving up money for your family.

If you want a pine tree smell with your tree, you can purchase a pine tree spray you can spritz on your tree so it could give off the Christmas scent you want. ;).

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.