Christmas Trees

[balloongal247]

If you celebrate Christmas (if not, Happy Holiday you do celebrate, and if you don't then just Happy Day!), do you put up a real or artificial tree?  When do you put up your tree?

I do live trees, though I do have an artificial one stored away from when I lived on my own and would come home for the holidays and so wouldn't be able to care for a live tree.  On Friday we went to a local Christmas tree farm, and cut down a pine tree.  I'm very hopeful that it will stay nice and fresh as it's still going through like 5 cups of water a day.  Last year we bought one of the pre-cut firs imported from the north, as we'd been having a drought and the trees were all pretty brown, and they'd like sprayed them with something to make them look more green.  This year we've had lots of rain though.

I love the smell of a fresh cut real Christmas tree.

[lakecat]

I haven't had a real tree for a few years. But when I was younger my parents (who know a lot about trees and gardening) usually would look for a Fraser Fir. We would go to one of several tree farms (I'm in Michigan) and cut our own or buy one already cut if we liked one. The Fraser Fir is one of the most popular Christmas trees. It has a nice shape, and the needles aren't sharp. You can run your hand over the branches. It holds most of its needles for weeks with just moderate watering needed. Maybe that's what you had before. Do you know which kind of pine you have now? Some are popular here too.

http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/choosing_the_right_christmas_tree

[balloongal247]

Yes, I think it might have been a Fraser Fir.. Or maybe a Douglas Fir?   That's what we got for most of my childhood, as that's what my Northerner mother prefers.  However firs won't grow this far south, so to get a fresh local tree our choices were Virginia Pine, Cedar or Cypress.  It's perfect, strong enough to hold ornaments, with just enough gaps to dangle long ornaments.  Apparently you want the cut trees to drink a lot of water, especially the first few days, as that means it's nice and alive and the cut hasn't scabbed over.  Basically, it wants to drink water, so if it isn't that means it can't.

[babayaga67]

Growing up my mother always had a real tree. She was allergic to them though, so it was always my sister and I that had to do the decorating. My mother was super picky about how the lights were put on and it took my sister and I about three hours to just do the lights on a 6.5 ft tree, when we did it right the first time. It was a unique form of torture.

I have an artificial tree for my family now. I am actually planning on buying a real tree from Home Depot when they mark down all of their trees 75% off. I want to plant one in the backyard for the kids to be able to decorate every year. It will grow with them, and it will be where the elves drop off their Christmas PJs and special Christmas Eve gift.

Just in case I have not made this clear to everyone - I am a Christmas freak. I started buying gifts for Christmas in January. All of those gift boxes get marked down right after Christmas to super cheap, and it's not like soap or coffee mugs are going to go bad. I do not give my kids toys during the year. On their birthday they get one big gift that is something that can be easily shared (a ball pit, a bounce house and play hut connecting tents), but that is it. I buy toys year round that I find in Clearance sections and just put it in boxes in the basement. I have over 150 gifts for this Christmas so far, but A ) that's for six people and B ) well, I just love Christmas.

I know that that sounds like a lot of money, but I spend about $1-5 per toy when it is broken down. I found those little mystery bags for Cars (the movie) cars marked down to 10 cents at one of my stores. I bought 20 of those bad boys. I save up reward points at certain stores and am able to get a lot of stuff for free that would normally cost 20-50 bucks on sale.

I see other kids who harass their parents because they know the mom and dad's pay schedule, so they know that the parents will have money, and that means a new toy for the kid. Every single paycheck these people give their kids a new toy. I think that that is worse because then the kids are expecting to get stuff all of the time. These kids are jerks to their parents because they know that they will get whatever they want anyway, and they will get it now. Those same kids will still get a bunch of stuff for their birthday and for Christmas as well. They don't get as much as my kids do, so their parents tell me that I am spoiling my kids. 

Yes, I love Christmas. Yes, my house looks like a bunch of elves threw up. No, my front yard is not big enough for all of the decorations I have. Yes, there will be a lot under (around and on top of) my tree. Yes, I spoil my kids. I do, that ONE DAY.

Below is a picture of last Christmas, but the gifts include presents from two sets of grandparents and one set of great-grandparents. It's not hard to guess where my love of Christmas comes from.

 

 

The dog was not a Christmas gift. He was my nerdy husband's first child. His name is Digital, or Digi for short.

[etrnldarkness]

We are a fake tree household  I really love the white trees and coloring them up with blue, purple, or pink lights and decorations! I usually put the white one on the porch and everyone can see it, but our trees have grown up too much now, haha. This year only the green one is up...looks a little bare compared to normal since the 4 yr old did all the decorating xD

I love Christmas season - winter in general. It usually leads to more quality time playing board games, cards, watching Christmas movies together etc. Summer is great for vacations and outdoor fun but I am more of an inside girl.

My sister usually gets a Douglas Fir for her house each year, but I'll stick with our fake ones we grew up with.

[Duma]

I grew up in a household where it was a tiny fake tree when we were little to a normal sized live one from our own garden when we got older. I loved the live one! After Christmas the tree would be planted in the garden again. My mom rotated years with 3 trees so they would stay nice and healthy. I won't have a Christmas tree this year, but in the future I plan to get a live one. IF my garden is big enough to hold 2 or 3 of them, I will probably do what my mom did and just bring one of them inside to decorate and plant it back outside after 6th of January. Putting up will depend on when I have time, but it will be after 6th of December. In our country there is another festive day around 6th of December and the Christmas tree does not belong in the room yet at that point. I won't go crazy with decorations, but I will try my best to make it cozy.