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Choosing The Right Christmas Tree Choosing The Right Christmas Tree

By Brittany Ehrlich

BRITTANY EHRLICH: THANKSGIVING HAS COME AND GONE…AND CHRISTMAS IS 29 DAYS AWAY…THAT MEANS ITS OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS TREE SEASON….AND ALTHOUGH ITS THE HAPPIEST TIME OF THE YEAR…THE DEBATE OVER WHAT TYPE OF TREE TO BUY CONTINUES TO KEEP A LOT OF PEOPLE NOT SO JOLLY…
ON ONE SIDE OF THE ARGUMENT ARE THOSE WHO BUY ARTIFICIAL TREES AND SAY THEY ARE COST EFFECTIVE BECAUSE ONCE YOU BUY ONE YOU ARE SET FOR LIFE…ARTIFICIAL TREE USERS ALSO SAY THEY ARE CONVENIENT AS THEY ARE ABLE TO BE STORED IN YOUR CLOSET AFTER THE SEASON…ON THE OTHER SIDE ARE THOSE WHO ENJOY REAL CHRISTMAS TRESS…THESE CONSUMERS SAY THAT BUYING THE TREES HELPS SUPPORT FARMERS GROWING THEM AND MAKES YOUR HOME SMELL GOOD…JAMIE BROWN HAS NOT BOUGHT HER TREE YET BECAUSE SHE IS WAITING FOR HER TWO SONS IN COLLEGE TO COME HOME…SHE SAYS SHE WILL DEFINITELY BE BUYING A REAL TREE BECAUSE OF ONE WORD…TRADITION…BROWN IS ALSO NOT WORRIED ABOUT HER TREE BEING A SAFETY CONCERN….

JAMIE BROWN: WE MADE SURE TO WATER IT EVERY DAY. MY HUSBAND IS A FIREFIGHTER. HE’S VERY PARTICULAR ABOUT IT SO…SO IT DOESN’T DRY OUT.

EHRLICH: NOW IT’S NOT EVEN DECEMBER… SO IF YOU HAVEN’T GOTTEN YOUR TREE YET, YOU STILL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO DECIDE.

With only 26 days till Christmas families all over the world have begun to pick out trees to decorate their homes for the holiday. The debate on whether to choose a real tree or an artificial one continues to grow with new research continuing to surface.

Real Trees
Advantages:

  • Tradition: Many families including Jamie Brown’s have been buying real trees for decades and want to continue to do so with their children. Brown is waiting for her family to come home so they can have holiday fun all together and pick out a tree.
  • Fresh smell: Real trees come with real tree smells. The scent of balsam fir is fresh and gives you that sense of winter and nature.
  • Support farmers: According to the USDA, 25-30 million real trees are sold each year. This means over 100,000 farmers are making a living growing Christmas trees.
  • Recyclable: Many programs throughout the US take these trees after Christmas and recycle them.

Disadvantages:

  • Cost: Prices of Christmas trees vary anywhere from $20 to $200 depending on where you buy it. When you do this every year that number continues to add up during an already expensive and stressful time of the year.
  • Messy: Needles continue to fall off the trees causing a mess in homes.
  • Pests: Many bugs can be brought into your home with real trees. Christmas tree farms are suppose to use a shaker to get the pests off before reaching your home but this isn’t always the case.
  • High Maintenance: Trees need to be watered continuously. Brown’s husband is a fire fighter and she told me if you don’t water the tree it can become dry and start a fire.

Artificial Trees
Advantages:

  • Cost Effective: Once you buy an artificial tree you then have it for life.
  • Clean: You don’t have pines falling off all the time.
  • Convenience: Since artificial trees don’t have pines and are plastic, they are able to be stored in your closet and taken out at your own convenience. They are also always in “perfect shape.”
  • Easy: You don’t need to water them.

Disadvantages:

  • Bad for Environment/Health: Artificial trees are made from PV plastic and therefore can’t be recycled. This plastic also holds toxins that can be harmful to your health.
  • No support: Many of these trees are made in China and don’t support local farmers.
  • Fire hazards: Artificial trees when in contact with a flame are even more flammable than a real tree.

 

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