Comments on: Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees – Which is Greener?

By: Natalia

Natalia — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:42:32 +0000

Got to this link from recent entry on Mother News Network. We’ve been debating this at my folks’ house (where everyone comes for at least 1 day, mostly a week or longer).

A point against real trees is that they ARE grown with sprays and pesticides, unlike the bliss-filled farms I imagined.

By: Winkyboy

Winkyboy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:30:45 +0000

There’s actually a con for real christmas trees that you didn’t list… Actually, I’m not sure how prevalent it is*, but I’ve noticed people driving home with trees that have this downside: They’re wrapping real christmas trees in plastic for portability.

* Our family doesn’t observe Christmas because it’s pagan, so I’ve never personally bought a tree for it. Of course, this is an entirely different aspect of the tree story. I just mention to explain my lack of experience with tree buying.

By: Get a local Christmas tree | South Jersey Locavore

Get a local Christmas tree | South Jersey Locavore — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:00:15 +0000

[...] I did some research last year on real vs. fake trees. In my research I learned that Christmas trees are treated as an agricultural product and tree farms help preserve open land that might not support other agricultural products. Usually, when a Christmas tree is cut down, another is planted in its place. We’ve got 1,000,0000 acres of land devoted to growing Christmas trees in this country. That’s a million acres of trees helping to clean the air. Each air provides enough oxygen for 18 people. You can read everything I found out over on A Little Greener Every Day. [...]

By: EcoGreenBags

EcoGreenBags — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:08:00 +0000

It seems to make sense that fake trees might be greener, but you’re right, they aren’t. If you already have one, sure. If you don’t have an artificial one, pass. The cleaning aspect alone (how do you clean a fake Christmas tree?) is something to consider.

By: Roy

Roy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:09:00 +0000

I’d probably do the fake thing, but my wife is adamantly against it. Christmas trees are a huge business in Oregon – many of the farms use helicopters (time is money) during harvest, so they can fill the trucks faster.

By: Adam Shake

Adam Shake — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 13:22:00 +0000

I've been wondering about this for a while and actually felt a little environmental guilt last year when I bought a live tree. (But I bought it from the Lions Club, so felt better about it)

But now I know that I can go out and get a live tree and feel good about it.

Thanks for clearing up, what to me, has been a nagging question.

Adam

By: Despairing

Despairing — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:41:00 +0000

Or you could follow my example, shout “Bah! Humbug!” to the whole thing, and refuse to put any decorations up at all!

On the other hand, I don’t have kids who would never forgive me…