which is better: real or fake?

5 Comments

Posted by Rebecca, December 13th, 2010

One of the reasons why I started this gig is to clear my head of all of the ideas floating around up there.  Mike compares my thoughts to a hamster running on its little wheel… I just keep going and going.  I lay in bed and I’m thinking “weeeell what if we do printed curtains!” then I’m eating dinner and I’m randomly like “I’ll spray paint that frame!” Everyday I’m obsessed with something in the house, sometimes I have more than one obsession.  Today it was family room curtains and… Christmas trees.

Yes it is mid-December and we don’t have a tree.  I guess I didn’t realize that the blog world starts linking up their Christmas posts in November.  In my head, I penciled in this past weekend for decorating and tree getting.  Then it rained all day Sunday 🙁  I also have a final exam on Thursday which is like a giant elephant on my back.  Once that is over, it will feel like Christmas and like I can enjoy myself.

I am a real tree person.  It’s not even necessarily the smell, it’s just the cats love it and well, it’s all I’ve ever really known.  Cleaning up needles comes with Christmas and anything otherwise seems… unnatural.  But today, more than before, I felt compelled to get a fake tree.  Not just because of the time issues I have, but because of our entryway.

The entryway was a requirement on our house hunting list.  I’ve always wanted a beautiful staircase to wrap with garland.  I also thought it would be pretty awesome to put a ginormous tree here.

One of my concerns with a fake tree is, of course, the cats.  Macky is a terror and will more than likely eat/climb said tree.  We always used a big, solid tree base for our real tree, so that he couldn’t knock it over.  My dad actually took a standard tree stand and poured concrete around it for their cats.  True story.  So my family has pretty much cat-proofed the real tree.  But fake ones? I have no clue.  Mike had the brilliant suggestion that we could use thin twine to tie the tree to the spindles so if Macky at least attempted a jump, the tree would be anchored.  Pretty smart, if I do say so myself, since my suggestion was sticking sandbags on the bottom….

We shopped around a bit tonight and we just don’t know enough about them.  We know we want around a 10 foot tree and many of them are on sale already. What do we look for in a fake tree?  Which do you think is more environmentally friendly, chopping down a biodegradable tree each year or reusing a plastic tree? Humpf.

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5 Responses to “which is better: real or fake?”

  1. Robin says:

    After one year I knocked the tree over onto myself (or my sister, don’t remember) my family had fake trees and part of the tradition became assembling the fake tree. T and I also had a fake tree in our tiny apt for those 2 years, just because of space constraints. Also, that fake tree shed for some reason so you’ll get to clean up needles still!

    I really don’t care either way, and I am not particularly green, so I can’t comment on that. All I can say is that because of our real tree this year we have an incredibly gnarly looking spider somewhere in our apartment. It came with the tree, free of charge!

    • Rebecca says:

      That’s hilarious! (as long as no one was injured..) Macky’s a professional bug catcher… and eater, so I’m pretty sure he could handle any living things that come out of it. Unless it’s a Griswold squirrel, he’d probably be scared to death of another animal…

      • Robin says:

        That is a good idea… I should bring Vixen to the house to get rid of the spider. Or the future bro-in law’s terrier…

  2. Dear blogging partner in crime,

    want to know a little secret?

    I’m going treeless this year. Partially b/c I JUST got the hubs back and its already sooo late in the season… and partially b/c i’m affraid of his bad kitty maddie =) hehe

    love always,
    the hippie chick at p&c

    ps: that doesn’t mean I can’t buy a baller one during after xmas sales juuuust in case I need one for next year 😉

    I’ve had real trees the last two years and they are so pretty but kill my allergies. luckily you have a giant house so even if you were allergic you wouldn’t be sleeping anywhere near it. hmm… but fake saves money and is more “green” and brings with it it’s own set of traditions just like a real one can. eep! hope that helps doll! xoxo

    • Rebecca says:

      We didn’t have a tree last year 🙁 We lived with my inlaws and they didn’t want to put up a tree because of our cats. So this will technically be our first tree in our house AND since we’ve been married.

      We did make up our mind tonight. I’ll tell you all about it in a few minutes 🙂

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