When did you buy your 1st fake Christmas tree?

[dontpanicbobby]

My 1st one is coming today. I have no idea what to expect. My Aunt had that aluminum one with the color wheel option before the Charlie Brown Christmas sponsored by Lorna Doone...

Mine is 7.5 feet, green (I hope) and with 400 colored lights and has 40 advertised light show options.

Anybody here have experience with this type of thing?

 

[Dannydet]

Sounds like you got a great deal!
I got my first fake tree back in 1987.
Nothing like a real fake tree in my house. At least no needles to clean up afterwards.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

My real fake tree can be taken apart and put back in it's surprisingly big box for storage.
Getting all the lights to work has been tricky so far. I've got the bottom 2 pieces to light up but the top is being stubborn.

 

[olbriar]

In the early to mid eighties I purchased a very nice fake Christmas tree. It was a beautiful blue spruce that was thickly branched. It was a large investment at that time but factoring in the eventual savings it seemed a very good investment. We enjoyed both the appearance and lack of mess that first Christmas and then I put it back in the box it came in, taped it up, and stored it in my shed. I was anxious the next holiday season to set up the fake tree and shortly after Thanksgiving I had the box opened in my living room. To my dismay, it had been the home of a number of mice families across the winter. Though the tree was intact, it's odor would knock your socks off no matter how much care was taken to hang them by the chimney. We tried everything to cover the odor but finally gave up, gave it the heave ho, and were back into the real tree business.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

My plan is to keep mine indoors after the season. The box can stand upright in one of my closets. Is your shed in the backyard @olbriar?

 

[olbriar]

It is in my back yard bobby. I should have known better.

 

[MoodyBlues]

I grew up with an aluminum tree and colored light wheel that changed its colors every few seconds. It was pretty, but I promised myself I'd only have 'real' trees when I grew up.

There's just something about the smell of a fresh Christmas tree that can't be beat! Sure, there are fallen needles to clean up afterward, but that's really not a big deal. The enjoyment the tree brings is worth it. The look, the feel, the scent--no fake tree can truly replicate that.

----- Gentle reminder: it's "its" -----​

 

[mikedt]

I can just remember our family bought a silver tinsel Christmas tree sometime around 1967, that we kept for about 10 years. And the lights we had looked like icicles in different colours. I can't ever recall the house having a real tree. And FWIW I'm now 56, and myself I've never bought a Christmas tree in my life, and not likely to.

 

[MoodyBlues]

our family bought a silver tinsel Christmas tree sometime around 1967

Those must've been popular in the '60s! That's when we got ours, too.

And FWIW I'm now 56

Aw, shoot, there you go reminding me you're younger than me...

and myself I've never bought a Christmas tree in my life, and not likely to.

But they're so pretty and smell so good!

I know they're not everyone's thing, though.

 

[ocnbrze]

I buy real trees thank you very much. In the LA times there is an article about how real tree this year is not in abundance compared to previous ones this years. This year depending on where you go, it might be harder to find the perfect tree. So in order to help these farmers, I elected to buy a real one this year.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

I bought two real pine wreaths for $30 USD. Each has a cute red ribbon but the aroma is what I was after.

 

[Milo Willamson]

Let me think, we had our first fake tree like in the eighties, mostly only because of visiting my grandmother it was down there, and we all the time would travel down there up until a few years or so ago. We had our first Illinois x-mas in here, about the same time my sister got engaged in 2012. It would be their fourth or fifth time up here as well. We have a huge box that we have it in, and still have a huge ten section ordimate box from around that time, in the eighties too.

 

[MoodyBlues]

ordimate

What, pray tell, is that?

(Spell-check, Milo, spell-check! )

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Got to mean an ornament.

I've got the ornaments on with help from friends and family. I was a little bummed out that the ornaments from the 1960s and 1970s seem to be all gone. Most were glass but plastic was coming in in the seventies.

I'm going to garland on Monday and give it a topper Christmas Eve.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Not using the fake one this year. I want a real one I can grow.
I only need room for 6 or so gifts.
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

 

[no one]

Never! I still hunt mine down in the wild, like a real man!! Douglas and his firs fear the time of the annual purge.

 

[rootabaga]

Never! I still hunt mine down in the wild, like a real man!! Douglas and his firs fear the time of the annual purge.

Is that anything like the reaping in "The Hunger Games?"

 

[rootabaga]

I've never bought one. My mom did, probably 25+ years ago. It was pretty good especially by the "artificial" standards of the time. I thought about keeping it after she passed but decided against it.

My wife has always done the real tree every year, and I do like that. It's a ton more work, but the pine smell in the house really helps set the mood. That there is a recycling/mulching program where we live makes it easier on my conscience.

This year we picked up (free) a thin-type pre-lit tree from a fellow church member who was getting rid of it. Since it's pre-lit we tossed it up in the front room near a window so it's visible from the front of the house. Our real tree (both figuratively and literally!) is in our sun room, which is in the back of the house off the family room, so it's not visible from the front. It's nice to see the other one from the street.

 

[Bearsyzf]

Always have, i can't stand the smell of Pine.