Published originally on Greenupgrader.com
In the past when I visited people during the holidays and saw that they were using artificial Christmas trees rather than real ones, I thought they were just being lazy. The only reason they didn’t want a real one I figured was because they either didn’t have space for a real tree, didn’t want to clean up pine needles, or were cheap.
I believed real trees were much better. They help bring nature into ours home and generally smell nice. The holiday ritual of going to buy a Christmas tree with friends or family members also has its charms, especially if you choose to go to a farm or a forest and cut down the tree on your own.
These things being said, I now understand that I used to have rather misguided preconceptions about artificial Christmas trees.
We’ve had both types of trees. Each has it merits; each has it hassles.
I think I prefer the convenience of the artificial tree, especially since we keep it (them) in the attic.
We typically put up two trees each year. One is the traditionally decorated variety. The other tree is decorated with the wife’s vast collection of Barbie ornaments.
Having two artificial trees also prevents us from incurring an added expense each year.
I think one of the trees is pre-lit, so that is one step eliminated from the process.