Real or fake? What do you like?

[nickagneta]

Okay perverts, I mean Christmas trees.

I have had fake trees for the past 20 years but think I might be sick of them and the hassle they can be. Help me out here.

[Eja117]

Yes....deceptive title...I kinda like it


To be fair real trees are sorta a hassle too....not sure which is the greater fire hazzard

[fairweatherfan]

Tough question.  Real ones look nice when you first get them but tend to age faster than you'd like.  The fake ones can mimic real textures pretty well these days, and don't look as artificial as they used to, but there's still something slightly off about them.  But they're generally cheaper (in the long run) and a lot easier to mount. 


I'd say more but I have to run, my tongue seems to be stuck in my cheek for some reason.

[Edgar]

Save a tree.

[nickagneta]

Save a tree.

Quality thinking there Edgar. TP.

[indeedproceed]

ha...I clicked on the thread title and the first post I read was FWF's. I was thinking to myself "What idiot is bringing this crap out on a friday afternoon?!"

But no, seriously...real ones for certain. Any yokel with the right amount of money can go to the right place and find something fake. It takes a real man to comb through dozens of candidates and single out the right one from the herd, than knock it down with an ax and drag it home behind you tied to a sled.

Wait..that got kinda dark at the end. I like to cut my own christmas tree from a tree farm. There. Tree farm.

[Fafnir]

I prefer real Christmas trees. Unfortunately my girlfriend breaks out in hives if she's so much as near a real Christmas tree without medication. 

So we have a fake four foot tree for our apartment.

[slamtheking]

Okay perverts, I mean Christmas trees.

I have had fake trees for the past 20 years but think I might be sick of them and the hassle they can be. Help me out here.

had me fooled with that title Nick!  TP for coming up with the name to most likely increase your readership.   

Personally, I've had both and they each have their merits.
Real are generally easier to put up and dispose of.
Fake are cheaper by the second year, have no gaps in the branches and don't shed needles.
I don't have a preference either way since my wife and I stopped putting one up years ago because the cats would end up climbing it and we'd have that squirrel scene from Christmas Vacation and the tree would come crashing down with busted ornaments.  (we soon realized anchoring it to the wall was the way to go but it didn't stop the cats from playing hide and seek in it or the dogs from trying to 'water' it     ).

[Jon Niednagel]

My wife has always had fake ones, and I must say I like them too. Wait, that came out wrong. What I mean to say is we are still using the fake tree she has owned forever, and it serves our purposes well every year.

[More Banners]

Although my preference is real, it's not really what it's all about. 

It's the spirit that matters most.  We can be moved by aesthetics, and so our "spirit" may be influenced more by one over the other, but I truly don't think it matters much.  For me, I have found examples of each to be quite inspiring at different times, and each has, in their own special way, contributed to a spirit of giving and sharing, bringing people close together.  And anything that inspires people to become closer is a fine thing indeed.

[blake]

Well I grew up seeing mostly real ones, but started to see fake ones pop up towards the end of high school.  I was told a lot of people received them for graduation gifts.  Then when I went to college I saw more and more.  They were very popular.  In college with both real and fake, I saw there was much more ornamentation than I was used to.  In my experience, the larger ones seem to be fake.  But that doesn't necessarily mean they are better.  You can tell that the cheaper ones don't exactly look even and the shape is off from the traditional ones.  Counter-intuitively the fake ones are much more high maintenance. I guess that is why we see celebrities with them than the general population.  They are constantly needing your attention.  The nice thing about them though is that they look the same, year in and year out.  The real ones tend to lose their shape after awhile and I tend to lose interest quickly.  As I get older though, I appreciate traditionalism and the natural beauty that they are.  The fake ones are fun for awhile, but they really aren't for me.  My wife's mother has always had fake ones as long as I have known her and they have looked great, but my wife refuses to go with the fake.  Given some time, she may change her mind.

[More Banners]

Counter-intuitively the fake ones are much more high maintenance.

Wisdom, this.  Tp.