Poll: Do you prefer fake or natural ones?
As my children begged us to put up our Christmas tree last night, I wondered where people stand on the artificial vs. real Christmas tree debate.
Before we had children, my wife and I used to tag and cut a Christmas tree at a local farm every year. This involved quite a bit of time and effort, but it was an enjoyable part of our holiday tradition.
That all changed once our first child was born, as we quickly figured out that lugging a cranky baby around a farm in the cold weather was not enjoyable for any of us. Fed up, we ended up over-paying for a pre-cut tree at the farm and headed home.
Since then, our Christmas tree tradition has devolved into to a $20 cheapie that I picked up by myself from a vendor on the side of the road to a $120 artificial tree that we bought two years ago.
While most of my spending is driven by the numbers, the convenience of not having to do all of the work that a real Christmas tree requires is worth every penny. Heck, I may even come out ahead if I can more than 6 years out of the fake one. :)
Before we had children, my wife and I used to tag and cut a Christmas tree at a local farm every year. This involved quite a bit of time and effort, but it was an enjoyable part of our holiday tradition.
That all changed once our first child was born, as we quickly figured out that lugging a cranky baby around a farm in the cold weather was not enjoyable for any of us. Fed up, we ended up over-paying for a pre-cut tree at the farm and headed home.
Since then, our Christmas tree tradition has devolved into to a $20 cheapie that I picked up by myself from a vendor on the side of the road to a $120 artificial tree that we bought two years ago.
While most of my spending is driven by the numbers, the convenience of not having to do all of the work that a real Christmas tree requires is worth every penny. Heck, I may even come out ahead if I can more than 6 years out of the fake one. :)
posted by Frugal Frugalson at
1:11 PM
2 Comments:
Besides the long run savings of an artificial tree, you are reducing a huge fire hazard. There is nothing like waking up Christmas morning to the sound of fire alarms.
By
Anonymous, at 11/28/06, 10:06 PM
Good point. While I made my decision based on the time and effort a real tree required (cut, transport, level & trim, water, needle pickup, etc.), the safety benefit of an artificial tree is also a plus.
From a purely selfish perspective, it's just nice not to have a real tree in the house when you have a couple of allergy sufferers living there.
By
Frugal Frugalson, at 11/29/06, 8:27 AM
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