Christmas Trees Fresh Cut or Fake

Bloodhound · Post by **Bloodhound** » 14 Dec 2022, 10:46

So we had a fake tree in a box when I was very young. We started making it a family outing to go cut one when I was 10 or 11 and that was the case thru my adult hood. We would normally get a permit and cut one on the US Forest lands.

There was a place on the Western Slope that raised Christmas trees. You would go out and they would drive you out on a hay wagon, give you a saw and the trees were tagged with type, age, height, and price. You cut the one you wanted and caught the hay wagon on its next "Drive thru". They had hot cider and cocoa and draft horses and a big fire pit and music and it was great...we did that till we moved to the Denver area.

Now there is a family that cuts trees and they have a lot. The trees are fresh and they are Colorado trees. Like everything the prices have gone way up. The oldest son was very apologetic about the increase. We have an 18 foot vaulted ceiling so we have in the past gotten big trees...this year we settled for a 7 footer...its fine...it was $70

My wife and I like having a fresh tree, so I don't see it changing, but just to ease our minds, we went to the local "Big Box...the fake trees that look like trees are $500+

We would rather have a smaller fresh tree than a bigger fake tree...for now.

So do you buy a fresh cut, or cut one yourself or put up the one you keep in a box in the attic?

Hovannes · Post by **Hovannes** » 14 Dec 2022, 11:04

I like real things. Especially when it comes to Christmas.
While it used to be possible to get a permit to cut your own on National Forest Service land,
with all the forest fires around here last year, there are no longer any permits available locally,
We'll go to a local lot to buy our tree.

tuttle · Post by **tuttle** » 14 Dec 2022, 11:37

As a kid we had one fake tree that lasted my entire childhood. It was ratty but I only know that now looking back on it.

When I had a family of my own we had a couple of fakers. One was a really nice one, prelit, but a monster to store and to put up. Then it broke.

There is a Christmas tree farm less than 10 mins from my house. The year after the big fake broke we switched to from plastic to natural like God intended. Been using real trees for maybe a decade now?

But you're right. They've gotten pricey. This year especially.

JimVH · Post by **JimVH** » 14 Dec 2022, 11:55

Fake. I desire real, but not at the expense of the wheezing and sneezing that comes with them. I like the lower maintenance burden, too.

FredS · Post by **FredS** » 14 Dec 2022, 12:23

Pre-lit fake up in here. I'd like a real one, but, you know, the effort v reward equation doesn't work out.

Permits to cut yer own on the National Forrest land up here are $20. The last two weekends, Smokey the Bear and park rangers have been stationed at the Mt Margaret trailhead handing out candy canes and maps showing where you can cut trees. Mrs FredS declined the photo op each time we drove by.

sweetandsour · Post by **sweetandsour** » 14 Dec 2022, 12:55

"Fresh" cut tree from Lowes here this year. I'm doing my best to keep it watered, but I don't know. Anyway it's pretty and it smells good.

Hovannes · Post by **Hovannes** » 14 Dec 2022, 17:01

We just finished decorating our tree.
Looks good. Smells good

joegoat · Post by **joegoat** » 14 Dec 2022, 19:03

Growing up, we had a fake one for years until we started driving into the SW Pennsylvania mountains to cut one down, drag it home and put it in the house. Once we cut our first one, it was what we did every year.
We always went to a tree farm owned by a guy named Buck. He was genuine Pennsylvania mountain folk. He had maybe three teeth and probably operated a moonshine still in the warmer months.
Mom always insisted we go up as soon after the Thanksgiving dishes were cleaned as possible. That always coincided with deer season. I distinctly recall my dad telling my mom as rifle shots rang through the air, "Marilyn, we need to pick a tree soon before we get killed!"
We would traverse the hillside on foot for the better part of three hours, looking at dozens upon dozens of trees. The good looking ones would be mentally noted and we would move on. When it came time to choose between the aforementioned good looking ones, they were hundreds of yards apart in row upon row of green shrubbery. They were often lost forever and another tree was determined to be the perfect one. Yes we took ribbon one year to mark them and we never did find those trees with ribbons on them.
The tree was finally selected, cut, and loaded in the truck and we gave Buck his $20. On the drive home that tree grew two feet taller and doubled in girth. Every year we found that it nearly filled out small living room. The small cast iron base was no match for treezilla. My father would lay beneath the hulking mass of conifer, tweaking the stand, trying in vain to get it straight enough. Inevitably wires were added for auxiliary support after the third or fourth evening of adjusting the base.
Once the tree was secured and decorated, the cats came into play. Our house played host to as many as eight "special" barn cats at any given time. Few sounds can rouse you from bed as quickly as a glass ornament clad evergreen falling into the coffee table at 2:00 AM. Those wires never did hold up to a 15 pound cat climbing to the top for a better view.
The last live tree came from that very same hillside. It was a double trunk, lopsided, tree from hell. It wouldn't stand straight or stay upright. No matter the extent of base tweaking or wire bracing, it could not be tamed. My mother determined it was a list cause and out on the porch it went. It was replaced by a fake tree from there on out. That tree from hell was adopted by our neighbors who wouldn't get their tree until the week of Christmas. The lady of the house declared it perfect and it served them well that year.
My wife and I always get a real tree from Lowes. They cost twice as much as they did our first Christmas together, but there aren't any mountain Christmas tree farms on Ohio. The cut your own places that do exist around here want to charge you $100. We get our tree immediately after Thanksgiving and I stays up until New Years. It then goes on the burn pile to dry into a highly flammable mass of kindling. It gets lit up one last time sometime in the spring.

mcommini · Post by **mcommini** » 15 Dec 2022, 00:37

My opinion- fresh cut if you are going out and cutting it down yourself. If you're buying off the lot at Home Depot you might as well save yourself a yearly expense and get a fake tree. Given all the extra hassle of a real tree, you really should only get one for the bragging rights of "I went out into the forest and brought this tree back to my family myself" (or "we had this pine in our yard on death's door and figured...").

My Christmas tradition tends either way- my mom's more rural family with acres and acres of free pine up for grabs almost always had a real tree. My dad's family was straight East Coast urban and always had a fake tree. If we weren't visiting family we'd get a real tree when we could go out and do it ourselves but always had a fake in storage for backup.

Hovannes · Post by **Hovannes** » 15 Dec 2022, 05:34

Going to Lowes (or any retail sales establishment) this time of year garners almost the same level of bragging rights as harvesting a tree in the forest LOL!