Maybe I'm an oddball...

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DemonSlayerMau
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Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by DemonSlayerMau » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:26 pm

I know there are many of you who prefer the real deal when it comes to Christmas trees. I can't blame you, it's a timeless tradition to have a real tree with the fresh pine smell.
But I always feel bad, I feel like I'm killing the tree just to celebrate Christmas. On Halloween for some weird reason it doesn't bother me (well, it started to after watching that pumpkin video that was submitted on here but still) but maybe that's because pumpkins have a short life span compared to a tree anyway.
But that's not really the odd part of it. Although you already may think I'm odd already, I know a lot of you are stark traditionalists. Nothing wrong with that, but for me it's tradition to have the tree dragged out of the basement and assembled together. You get to use the same tree year after year, and that becomes a tradition in itself. Well, until it gets really old, then you get a new one. Sometimes a tree may be passed down the generations as well. I think my aunt has my grandma's old tree, or did anyway. I would have fond memories of that tree going up every year.
So really, I know for some of you the real tree is tradition, but using the fake one is tradition for me. Probably sounds odd doesn't it? I know when my parents divorced and we moved in with my stepdad, we used a real tree. That was strange to me. I don't mind it, but you have to throw it away and it's kind of a mess. I even have my own little tree that I get out every year. Someday when I get my own place, I'd love to get one of those purple or blue ones.
I like being different though.
Does anyone else consider getting the fake tree out a tradition? Am I strange for thinking it's a beloved tradition comparable to getting a real tree? Putting it together yourself is part of the tree decorating event, and putting on the ornaments and garland and lights.
This probably seems crazy, crazy, a graveyard theory,
A ghost tried to approach me and got leery.
Ask him a question and he vanished in a second...

~ From a Ghost's Pumpkin Soup (Pumpkin Hill zone theme Song from Sonic Adventure 2) ~

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Murfreesboro » Sun Nov 29, 2009 11:49 am

OK, I have had a change of heart re this very topic.

As a younger woman, I was offended by the very idea of a "fake" tree. Nothing would do for me except the real thing!

However, the first year of our marriage, my husband and I were living in Texas, in an area with very few trees. When I saw the first Christmas trees go up for sale, I was eager to buy one, but my husband, who doesn't like to start Christmas early, said, Wait. Well, we waited, and when he said it was OK to buy, there were no real trees left! I was so steamed!!! We bought an artificial tree that year because it was that or nothing.

For several years afterward we would alternate, sometimes real, sometimes our fake tree. The only good thing about the fake tree was that it was paid for. That was a real consideration for us some years. There were times when, if we hadn't had the fake tree, we wouldn't have had a tree at all.

Well, about eight years into our marriage we had our first child, and I was determined to have a real tree for him. By that time we were living in Virginia and had friends who owned a Christmas tree farm, so it was easy to get one. I relished the odor of a real tree (nothing like it) and enjoyed that experience throughout his preschool years.

Then we moved to Tennessee, and economic times were a bit tougher again. Out came the old fake tree. I felt bad for my boys (by then I had two kids). But that year, after Christmas, my older son saw a real tree discarded in the gutter. He said to me, "Mommy, are we going to have to throw our Christmas tree away?" And I said truthfully, "No, ours is artificial. We will save it for next year." And he said, "Good."

Now, that "Good" turned my world around. I had never considered that he might grieve about throwing his Christmas tree away. But when he said that, I realized that the artificial tree, besides being economical, was sparing him a little pang every year. So I kept my eyes peeled, and the next year I spotted a really lovely artificial tree, much prettier than the one we'd originally bought, and I waited for it to go on sale the day after Christmas. Ever since then, that's the tree I've used (and we still have our original one, for sentiment's sake). I use a plug-in for the evergreen smell, or I buy a real evergreen wreath. But nowadays, it's artificial trees for me.

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by MacPhantom » Sun Nov 29, 2009 12:19 pm

I'm kinda with you on this. If I can't do a balled and burlaped real tree that I can plant in the yard after Crimbo, I kinda prefer a fake tree. I don't much like killing a tree.

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Andybev01 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:53 pm

I like both equally. I get sentimental for my childhood when it's the real thing but they are so messy and nothing is quite so depressing as a cut tree when it reallys startes to dry out.

The neat freak in me loves the artificial for it's tidy appearance plus no needles to vaccuum up every day, but there's no aroma.
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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Spookymufu » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:56 pm

Andybev01 wrote:and nothing is quite so depressing as a cut tree when it reallys startes to dry out.
this is where I must be the odd ball because I dont really care that a tree that was grown on a farm for the purpose of being a Christmas tree is dying and will be tossed in the trash bin and recycled at the dump........


but I do understand about the needles, I hate them too, this last year we got a 10ft tall flocked Douglas and it didnt shed at all and was the easiest tree I ever set up, in and out very easily.
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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Andybev01 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:04 pm

Not what I meant, I mean that they look like cr*p when they turn into kindling.

Modern Christmas tree Farms are typically planted on land not fit to grow food on and when you cut down a tree a new one grows from the cut stump so it's not like tree murder, it's like giving the forest a haircut. :P
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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Spookymufu » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:12 pm

Andybev01 wrote:Not what I meant, I mean that they look like cr*p when they turn into kindling.
ah, I see, yeah a brown tree does look bad, but, the flocked tree we had last year was all white and nice until we tossed it :)
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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Andybev01 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:17 pm

The flocking helps hold it together...Christmas glue.

The tree that our office gets is required by law (California) to be coated with a flame retardant. That stuff is like glue but you could probably throw the tree on a bonfire and would just sit there, unburnt.
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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by adrian » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:21 am

well its a good thing they plant hundreds and thousands of real trees every year for this purpose or i'd have to feel bad too for killing one :?

we put up our 8 foot douglas fur almost 2 weeks ago lol
Last night 'twas witching Hallowe'en
Dearest; an apple russet- brown
I pared, and thrice above my crown
Whirled the long skin; they watched in keen;
I flung it far; they laughed and cried me shame
Dearest, there lay the letter of your name!

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Pumpkin_Man » Wed Dec 02, 2009 12:07 pm

To each, his or her own, DemonSlayer. Like I said in the "TRADITION" thread in the "Off Topics" forums, just because I prefer a real tree, I don't condemn or take humbrige at other people prefering an artificial tree. And who am I to talk? I do use an Advent Wreath that's made from artificial pine boughs. In fact, this thing was most likely produced on a Chinese assembly line. I bought it at my local drug store for 3 bucks, and they were on sale for 50% off on the day after Christmas. It looks very real, and it fills the bill for being the Advent Wreath. I use a real tree because as you pointed out, it is a time honored TRADITION in my family, and I love it very much. My younger sister, and other siblings go with artificial trees any more, because they don't like the hassel of finding a tree and the clean up after Christmas. To me, finding a Christmas tree is part of the fun. I don't particularly enjoy the clean-up, but I'm willing to do it because I love my tradition.

BUT, you are NOT an odd ball for your preference by any means. If that was true, I would be an odd ball for having a fake Advent Wreath, as would a lot of my siblings for prefering artifical trees in their homes.

Mike


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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Murfreesboro » Wed Dec 02, 2009 2:28 pm

I'm belatedly trying to make an Advent Wreath. I have mislaid the one I used to use, though I have found a stash of unburnt Advent Candles. Now if I can just find some candle holders, I'll be in business!

Mike, when I got real trees, I used to purchase them from lots, or go to a tree farm. However, my mother used to go out into the woods for one with her family when she was a child (this was in Arkansas in the late teens & 1920s). She said there was nothing so Christmassy as that annual trek to the woods to find a perfect tree. That's a memory I never had (though one year we did chop down an unwanted cedar from our own property in town, and it made the best-smelling Christmas tree!).

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by adrian » Wed Dec 02, 2009 3:20 pm

Murfreesboro wrote:I'm belatedly trying to make an Advent Wreath. I have mislaid the one I used to use, though I have found a stash of unburnt Advent Candles. Now if I can just find some candle holders, I'll be in business!

Mike, when I got real trees, I used to purchase them from lots, or go to a tree farm. However, my mother used to go out into the woods for one with her family when she was a child (this was in Arkansas in the late teens & 1920s). She said there was nothing so Christmassy as that annual trek to the woods to find a perfect tree. That's a memory I never had (though one year we did chop down an unwanted cedar from our own property in town, and it made the best-smelling Christmas tree!).

worked just as well, right? :)
Last night 'twas witching Hallowe'en
Dearest; an apple russet- brown
I pared, and thrice above my crown
Whirled the long skin; they watched in keen;
I flung it far; they laughed and cried me shame
Dearest, there lay the letter of your name!

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by Murfreesboro » Thu Dec 03, 2009 9:35 am

Yes, indeed!

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by sueluvshalloween » Sun Dec 06, 2009 8:33 am

DemonSlayer, there's nothing odd about how you feel on the subject of real trees. And I agree with you 100% that dragging the artificial tree out from the basement every Christmas is tradition for you.

I grew up with an artificial tree. I think we had a real one up until I was about two years old. After that, my parents decided to go artificial. My mom said the reason they decided this was because real trees can pose a fire hazard and the housing project we lived in didn't allow real trees. Later on, I found out that reason was actually a lie, as the apartment walls were fireproofed. My parents just didn't want to bother with the hassle of a real tree. But getting back to the tradition part, it was tradition every Friday after Thanksgiving, my father would take my sister and I to walk over to the housing project's storage building and help him carry the box back to our apartment. My mother and sister and I would then put it up and decorate it. So that happy memory has always stuck in my head, which is just as awesome as the memory others have of being kids and going to the tree farm with their parents to cut down the perfect tree.

The advantage of having an artificial tree is you have it every year and don't have to spend money on a tree. I bought my family-room tree, which looks very natural, from Wal-Mart for $50 nine years ago and it's still in pretty good shape. The binding on a couple of the branches is starting to show wear, but that's about it. I've actually thought it would be nice one year to have a real tree since we've never had one, but then I figure why bother. Anyway, I worry about my cat eating it and getting sick, or if we forget to water it and have a fire. There are some really beautiful articifical trees available these days that look so natural you can't tell they're not. And if you'e really pining (no pun intended! :mrgreen: ) for that fresh-cut pine smell, you can spray your fabulous fake with pine spray or light some candles! Or, better yet, decorate your tree with those little pine-tree car fresheners! :D

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Re: Maybe I'm an oddball...

Post by MacPhantom » Sun Dec 06, 2009 1:51 pm

Okay.... talk about oddball.......

I wasn't gonna put up any decorations at all for Crimbo this year, cause I'm just not feeling it. But the snow yesterday put me in a mood, so I went out into the front yard and cut a branch from one of the 30' blue spruces. I screwed together some boards for a base, attached a plastic cup for water, and put up not a Christmas tree, but a Christmas Branch.

Image

As you can see, it doesn't look too bad from the front; kinda looks like a mini tree. Just don't look at it from the side:

Image

You'll notice it has one red ornament, in the Charlie Brown style. I threw a strand of lights on it, and viola:

Image

I think I've started a new tradition. It's perfect. I don't have to kill a whole tree, but I can still have a real one. It doesn't take up a lot of space. It doesn't take any time or effort to put up or take down. It only uses one strand of lights, so it saves electricity, but it adds the little bit of Crimbo cheer I'm willing to tolerate.

All hail the Traditional Crimbo Branch! :mrgreen:

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