My brother had terrible allergies to trees, so I grew up with fake trees. So that's what I have as an adult, too!

I would love to try a real tree some day, just to see if I can do it. It seems so complicated!

REAL 100%

Growing up my parents had a fake tree and my grandparents always had a real one. I used to have a fake tree but living in an apartment I just don't have the space to store it. I'd love to get a real tree though. Disposal is easy for me. Our best friends live in the country and have a new year's party where everyone who has a real tree brings it and we do an anual burning of the trees. It does show you how scary they are if you let them get to dry though and something happens. Those things go up quick!

REAL!! They smell good, and they're cheaper!! :bigsmile:

Cheaper? We got real trees every year until last year, and always spent $50-75 for a decent tree.

My fake tree was cheapie cheap at $30.

Even if the real one is cheaper at the time than a fake one, you don't keep buying a fake one year after year.

Really?? My real tree last year was $20, and the fake ones I saw were $50+... But yes, in the long run it is cheaper, since you don't replace them yearly! But the smell... AND you don't have to assemble the things, or store the tree during off-season... the list goes on

...I also like the experience of picking out a tree... call me silly, but I feel like I'm giving the tree a "home" or something... I tend to anthromorphize things a LOT. :laugh:

Oh I totally hear ya. i really don't like our fake tree, but for this year anyway it'll have to do. My mom caved this year and finally bought a decent fake tree since her and my dad are alone in their new house now and don't feel the need to pick out a real tree anymore. She always said she had to have the real pine smell too and REFUSED to get anything but a real tree until this year.

I bought a very nice fake tree on an after Christmas sale for $50 back in 1991. I spray it with that "real tree" scent and put a pine scented thingy in the box every year. It took about 3 years but it smells real (without bothering my allergies) to the point that friends thought we had a real tree and just got lucky in finding a really nice one. Storage isn't an issue. I just put it in the garage or when we had a basement in our first 2 houses I'd put it in there. Even when we were in an apt I'd put it on the floor of the closet and just set other stuff on top of it. It didn't take up much more room than the ornaments, lights, garland, misc decorations.

Figuring a real tree will cost about $50 each year and I paid $50 for this one 30 years ago, I figure I've saved about $1500 by buying that fake tree. Really, it's probably a lot more. If we got a real tree I'd want something nice and those are even more expensive.

I've never once had a real tree. Up until I was 12 years old, my family lived in apartments, so we weren't allowed to have real trees. When my parents got a house when I was 12, we continued to do fake trees. My mom said real trees are too messy. Judging the homes of my friends who had real trees, I can say, she's right! All those needles...blah.

Also, I don't MIND the smell of the real trees, but I would grow to hate it really quickly. A grocery store here in town that I go to a lot has them set up all outside the perimeter of the store, and walking from the parking lot to the entrance you smell them...at first, it isn't so bad...then it's REALLY bad. :laugh: I couldn't live with that smell in my house.

We just got a new fake tree last month. I love this one! It's honestly the nicest one that I've ever personally owned. It's black, which yeah, that's kinda weird, but when it's lit up, it looks like a dark forest green. This is also the first year I've ever had the traditional lights on a tree, vs. the rainbow lights, which I used to love, but now can't stand. And it was only $40.

I bought a very nice fake tree on an after Christmas sale for $50 back in 1991.

Figuring a real tree will cost about $50 each year and I paid $50 for this one 30 years ago, I figure I've saved about $1500 by buying that fake tree. Really, it's probably a lot more. If we got a real tree I'd want something nice and those are even more expensive.
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1991 = 20 years at savings of $1,000

However if you did buy a fake tree in 1981 at $50, that must be one heck of a tree. Did it come with a Beta Max or a laser disc copy of Star Wars? Oh wait I get it...being the 80's is it flocked with "fake snow"? Yeah ok you got this tree while skiing the Alps Tony Montana right?