Thursday, December 11, 2008

Real Vs. Fake?

What do you think I'm going to talk about in todays Mr. Rodgers discussion? Boobs? Whole schools of thought on that. Me? I don't really care. Real, fake, whatever.

What I'm talking about is..........Christmas trees.

Many might shudder at the thought of a fake one. I know many years ago I did too. At the mention of a "Fake" tree visions of white trees with mauve and colonial blue balls might come to mind.

This is probably because as a child I was never subjected to a fake tree. It was unheard of. I remember going to look for Christmas trees with my Dad. It was a huge deal. Which tree? Did the branches fall right? Did it have any open spaces that would be distracting? How tall was it? Did it smell good? All those things were considerations. Then we would pick one out and strap it on the top of our station wagon and bring it home to decorate it. I remember my Mom measuring out water with sugar in it and pouring it into the tree stand with a measuring cup. I was delighted by every decoration that came out of the box that they had carefully been placed back in the year before. Every gingerbread house and gingerbread man and the pretty balls and the balls with birds and the birds that sat on the branches. Each one was ingrained in my memory, year after year.

So it's probably odd that I have a fake one. I tried a real one, a couple times. I'm going to tell you, to me, it was a big huge pain. The needles falling off, it inevitably tipped quite a few times and the water spilled out and stained the rug. I never seemed to get it out of the house at the right time. All the neighbors trees would be picked up on "tree taking day." Ours sat there for weeks. Until, finally at some point someone would drag it from the curb and throw it in the woods behind our house. Dead trees. Makes me cringe.

Here enters my Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I love this tree. I bought it like 7 years ago. It lives in my basement. Every Black Friday I drag it in three separate pieces up the stairs. I put it together like a puzzle. I string the lights. It never tips over. I only let ornaments that are Santa Claus go on it. I love it. This year the kids wanted to decorate it. They loved the ornaments. They talked about ones they remembered. Chase broke a ball while having a catch with it. They had fun. They did say, after the last candy cane had been put on, "Mom, some year can we get a real tree?" Insert me smiling and nodding while thinking, "No."

I'm pretty sure when they are adults they will have the biggest real Christmas trees they can buy. Someone will mention fake trees and THEY will roll there eyes and say, "No way!"

Maybe a little real one, we'll see......

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay, I have to go with real on this one. Real tree, real wreaths. The perfect tree, picked out and cut down by the family,white lights, only the "good glass" ornaments on it that Santa brings everyone, including the pets, each year. This tree in the living room; the pretty room, the room with the stockings hung by the chimney with care, the room no one goes in.

Then there is the Family Room Tree: 100% Fake, colored lights, every odd ball ornament, every hand print in clay, 10" a paper Jesus made by a two year old, even gold tinsel garland. This is the room we live in.

Peace and Laughter to all this season.

Meredith said...

I love your Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It's so You. I think a photo would explain a lot. Love, Mom

Lula! said...

I love my faux tree. Calling it "faux" just adds instant class, huh?

There's a reason Bath and Body Works sells those fabulous "Tree" scented candles...I buy several, place them in varying points around my house, and light away...voila! Instant fresh evergreen smell, with the ease of prelit faux-ness. Amen!

Simple Answer said...

We cut ours down one time. Biggest pain in the a** ever. Leaked sap and completely ruined our new carpet. If only a fake tree came with the smell. Perfection.

PS - I love that you have a santa theme!

Anonymous said...

my chase insists on a real tree. for the record, i make him pick out a small one since our place isn't that big. and what a pain in the ass it is considering we live on the 3rd floor. what joy it is to drag that tree all the way up three flights of steps. (and lets not forget the mess that follows us all the way up those steps either!) then we have those damn cats that attack the ornaments on the bottom of the tree. so you know the crappy ones go on the bottom. and our tree stays up forever, because chase cries when i take it down and insists it's not dead! by that point and time it's lost 3/4 of its needles and where do you think they are? you guessed it...all over my house. the joys of christmas. the only good thing about it is it looks and smells nice. other than that, major pain in the ass. btw...i like your charlie brown xmas tree. like your momma said, it is so you.

Anonymous said...

the rules according to jami...
#1 must have real live christmas tree. no exceptions. enjoy your plastics, dearie. i shudder at the thought, but if it makes you happy...

Mark said...

Yours is the only fake tree worth having. It's unlike any other I have seen. I searched online for two hours last week looking for one like it and came up empty handed. Your Mom is right, post a picture so that all the naysayers will make an exception.

Sue Jacquette said...

We have both. We cut down a big real tree every year and that one has all of our decorations from over the years. Plus we have a smaller fake one that I only put decorations we got while traveling and different size red ball ornaments on it. It's our vacation tree. I love the convenience of the fake one, but you can't beat the smell of the real one. Plus the tradition of picking it out in the field and sawing it down, getting hot cider afterwards... it's all part of our Christmas.

Anonymous said...

We went to a fake tree a couple of years ago when we moved out to Ohio b/c real trees here are ridiculously expensive and there was no easy way to get rid of it after Christmas (when I lived in NH it was all about a real tree though, b/c of course we could go chop one down in our back yard practically!)

I love the smell of the real trees, and I miss it a little bit, but I DON'T miss vacuuming up those pine needles every day!

Unknown said...

My husband and I had this idea that a fake tree would be better since we have cats, and we thought that the cats would eat the needles, drink the water, etc. Unfortunately, we didn't consider the fact that the cats would climb the tree, and since the branches are metal and not real, they bend and don't bounce back. Now our tree is permanently misshapen.