O' Christmas Tree

When I was a kid, we decorated the Christmas tree every year around my birthday (December 16th).

We would drive to the tree farm and pick one out.  My Dad would cut it down (although I am pretty sure my mom actually cut it down one year when my Dad couldn't make it) and we'd drive home with it strapped to the top of our Buick station wagon, giddy with excitement.  And then we'd get home and my Dad would bring it inside and get it all set up in the tree stand and my mom would break out the boxes of ornaments and pass them out to us, one at a time, to carefully place on the tree.

It was quite an event.  In fact, just the kind of event I hope I can recreate for my own kids.

A couple of days ago, we decorated our tree.

Here's where I need to make a confession about what seems to be a very hotly contested debate this time of year.

Real tree?  Or fake tree?

This year, our tree is fake.  We made a big deal out of getting it and setting it up, and it was very exciting for the kids.  They don't realize that they're missing out on the experience of picking their own tree, watching Daddy cut it down, and then getting to smell it's fresh pine scent every day.  I do - I realize this - but I'm totally onboard with "the fakie," as we like to call it.

Last year, we had a real tree and it shed pine needles like crazy, all day long and every single day for the entire month it lived (died a slow death?) under our roof.  Then it was time to take it out for the neighborhood tree pick-up service our trash service offers, so we (Charles) dragged it outside (leaving about two billion pine needles on the floor in its wake) and left it at the curb (amongst the other neighborhood trees) to be removed.

The next day, all of the trees on our street were gone, leaving little patches of green pine needles next to the mailboxes.  All of the trees were gone, that is, except ours.

Apparently ours (at about 7' tall) was too big to be picked up - it needed to be cut in half first.  :::SIGH:::  So, Charles had to cut it in half and then schedule another pick-up.

It did, eventually, get picked up...leaving the biggest pine needle puddle on the block in front of our house.

In one word, our real Christmas tree was a big fat PAIN.

So, I didn't fight too hard when Charles said he wanted a fake tree.  In fact, I even agreed.  And willingly sent him to Home Depot, where he chose the *perfect* tree.

I do miss the smell of fresh pine needles in our home.  But I don't miss cleaning them up.

The beauty to our fake tree (aside from the actual beauty of the tree - there are no bare spots or funny looking branches on this thing) is that we will have it for a long time to come.  If we choose to take the kids out the tree farm next year to cut down our own tree, we can do that...and then if we hate it, we can go back to our fake tree the year after that.

There was a time when I was an Extreme Tree Snob and thought it was really, really lame to have a fake tree in the house.  I still get why people feel that way.  But I also get why there is a fake Christmas tree industry in the first place.

It's because they're AWESOME.

Real or fake, I hope you enjoy your tree this year (if you have a tree and celebrate Christmas, that is - if  you don't celebrate Christmas this might be a good time to be thankful for that because these darn trees are a lot of work!).

So tell me...are you a die-hard Real Tree person, or do you swear by your fakie?