Thread Real Tree vs. Artifical Tree

What type of tree do you prefer?

  • Real

    Votes: 7 36.8%
  • Artifecal

    Votes: 9 47.4%
  • Festivus Pole

    Votes: 3 15.8%

  • Total voters
    19
Yes, I can block out every bit of brainwashing that surrounds this entire festive period. That's totally do-able. Thanks. Let the old guys who have no family left and are on their own in their government housing watching old film re-runs on Christmas feeling lonely and like nobody cares know that it's all okay, it's not a commercial holiday, they should be happy and thankful. Or the people who can barely get by month to month (bearing in mind we're now in a recession) but still have 3 children who watch adverts all day long and want to compete with the other Lil Timmy's in the playground about who got the most at Christmas. Tell them it's not commercial and they can stop feeling the pressures any time they like.

Um, that's Tiny Tim, not Lil Timmy.
 
i totally de-commercialized my christmas by making deals with all my relatives not to get shit for each other.

getting gifts was cool when i was a kid, but shit, anything I want now I can simply go out and buy. (anything small enough to be an xmas present anyways)... so instead of us each wasting money getting each other random shit none of us really want or need that'll sit around until the giver has forgotten about it so it can be tossed, we just get together and hang out as a family. it's like a thanksgiving encore now instead of some crappy holiday filled with gifts in the 5-100$ range that I don't need cause I already bought it myself. wooooooooooo


best part is i don't have to do any shopping. :D
 
I'm not reading 9 pages of tree posts. I have an artificial tree (same one for 4 or 5 years now) and an evergreen candle. Works for me.

I had real trees growing up and really don't mind the difference enough to spend the money every year.
 
Yep.....Either you have to pay to burn it, or pay trash stickers to dispose of it. And no I don't have a chipper shredder big enough to take care of it that way.

Sounds like Columbus needs to get better services. Here they have places where you can take the tree and they turn it into mulch for you which you can then take home or donate. All free.

At that rate I might as well just use all manners of Arctic fauna to power the diesel.

Yeah, but then you are only directly killing plants and air, you need to work animals in their somehow. Maybe you could just shoot a bald eagle for good measure?


What incentive do I have to temporarily decorate my house? It's not like I'm having a party, which is the only reason I can think of to do that.

If I put up lights at any other time of year my home owners association gets angry so I look forward to Christmas as an opportunity. You could always have a Christmas party for all these poor unloved people you are so worried about and spread some holiday cheer.

I just want to throw out there that I am not a fan of Christmas and what it stands for. Now I LOVE Thanksgiving because its about getting together and enjoying your company and what you are thankful for... Christmas is Thanksgivings ugly red-headed step child.

I'd ban Christmas if I was king and it if wasn't so important to our economy.

Huh, I'm the opposite way. I feel more stressed out about Thanksgiving because it's all about the food and I'm not a big fan of food. I really hate turkey. I hate the cooking and being stressed about making everyone happy. Ugh. I'm glad I didn't have to participate this year.
 
Most years we do try and invite anybody who might otherwise be alone but it's a fucking shitty and horrible society that makes it's most vulnerable feel like shit at these times, which all the hype and bullshit in everyone's faces does. I don't like Christmas, I'm not Christian and yet if i was to spend Christmas alone I'd feel like I was missing out, like nobody cared, and why? Because this society forces this bullshit on us.

Fucking brainwashing bullshit. Argh.
 
Yeah, but then you are only directly killing plants and air, you need to work animals in their somehow. Maybe you could just shoot a bald eagle for good measure?
Fauna:

fau·na noun \ˈfȯ-nə, ˈfä-\
plural faunas also fau·nae\-ˌnē, -ˌnī\
Definition of FAUNA: animal life; especially : the animals characteristic of a region, period, or special environment
 
Also, this is my favorite family story about a Christmas tree.

YEARS AGO, ON A night well-remembered in our family, my parents found the perfect Christmas tree. This specimen stayed green, scented all three floors of the house, never shed a needle and showed off the ornaments.The hunt began on a Sunday night in December, during a merry visit to my grandmother's Poultney Street rowhouse in the neighborhood we call Federal Hill today. In 1963, it was just plain South Baltimore.

My parents and five brothers and sisters were listening to the grandmother we all called "Mame" (Mary Louise Bosse Kelly) retell her catalog of war stories, those often-told family tales that seem to get repeated on cozy nights.

Before long, she'd produced a venerable Esskay lard tin full of Christmas cookies. The kitchen table was soon a mound of wax paper (used to separate cookie layers), dough Santas and stars, and bottles of RC Cola.

As we wolfed down this first draw of heavenly Christmas baking, my mother mentioned that we still needed to buy a tree. Mame responded that the neighborhood boys were selling trees just around the corner on Cross Street near Charles.

Back then, the spot was a random collection of vacant shops and alleyways. Today, it's home to upscale music bars whose admission charges equal what we paid for a tree then.

My grandmother was a strong advocate of waiting till the last minute to buy a tree. She knew that by the laws of Baltimore neighborhood economics, tree prices fell as Dec. 25 approached. We ignored her "You're buying too early" advice, trooped down an alleyway and found the Cross Street woodsmen.

Their stand had all the right features. There was an oil drum full of smoking fire to keep the sellers warm. There were a few two-by-fours nailed together in a cross to support a row of balsam trees, which was about the only kind of tree available then, except for the few Scotch pines that were beginning to be introduced. And, of course, there was a line of bare electric light bulbs strung up.

Without much deliberation, my mother and father eliminated the worst of the balsams, picked one that seemed to have all its parts and tied it atop our Rambler American station wagon. My grandmother was steadfast. No tree for her that night. She figured to hold out until Dec. 24.

After prolonged goodbyes, Mame waved us on the way northward. My father took the car up South Charles Street and east on Montgomery to Light, where he reminisced on the old wharves that once stood in what has since been proclaimed the Inner Harbor. Back then, on a good day, Baltimoreans called that body of water "The Basin."

At the place on Light Street where my father was describing the glories of the Old Bay Line, the tree broke its flimsy moorings and flipped into the Light Street traffic. Oncoming cars hit it squarely.

We all let out a gasp, but my mother thought the flying tree exceedingly funny. She remarked that at least the freight train that then made nightly bulk deliveries to the McCormick spice plant hadn't hit it.

Well, if buying a tree early was an extravagance, we certainly were not going to add to the profligacy by buying an undamaged replacement. The injured balsam was fetched and retied.

A few days later, my father brought the bruised tree inside the house. He turned its worst side toward the corner of the dining room. Its second worst side was trimmed with large ornaments. Its scent, helped along by the tires of Light Street, was extraordinary. My mother claimed the cars had pressed out the sap.

It was, by all accounts, our best-remembered tree.

Jacques Kelly
Pub Date: 12/08/96
All content herein is © 2010 The Baltimore Sun and may not be republished without permission.


The writer, who works for The Sun is my 2nd cousin once removed or some such.
 
i would have assumed nme was referring to the baltimore sun when she said that

what with all the 'cell phone' and 'sidewalk' posts since she spent a wet sunday in creditsville.
 
Or it makes them feel alienated, lonely and unloved because OBVIOUSLY every decent person in the world is showered with love, attention and gifts at Xmas and god forbid you're one of the 'unfortunate' people out there who is alone on Christmas therefore making you the pity party of the century. Christmas serves to make people feel pressured unnecessarily and makes the most vulnerable feel extra sh*tty about themselves. I

You are the queen of straw men. Or something.
 
I'm just confused how you missed it since the copyright on the article said the Baltimore Sun and it's obvious that the article was about Baltimore, Maryland. Perhaps you just read the last line. I can't blame you. It was certainly a teal fauna.

I read the start then I was like 'oh this isn't actually eileens story meh'. Then I read the last line. So yes.