Hobson's Choice
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Trees
The mamablog almost never solicits your advice; that's the not the point after all. But now I come to you with a life-and-death question that faces our family in the next month.....
Real Christmas tree or artificial?
We're faced with this decision since the artificial tree abandoned by the previous owners of our home is not up for another year of decor. Because of the way in which it was constructed (nails), it was impossible to collapse and take down. It spent the summer upright in the basement being (we have discovered) marked by the cats. They were apparently thrilled to find territory in the basement (and stupid as well; it bears almost no resemblance to an actual tree).
So, real tree or artificial?
Artificial trees are so much more practical and cheaper over the long term. Yet getting a real tree is a little bit like marrying for love; not very practical, somewhat impulsive, terribly romantic, and definitely the thing to be done. Real trees bring the moment of Christmas into the home; they center Christmas meditations as you inhale the pine smell.
But, but, but something does seem wasteful about killing a tree every year for decor. (Though I have read that Christmas tree farms are wonderfully sustainable and are responsible for reforestation in areas whose trees have been decimated by the 19th and 20th centuries.)
On the side of the artificial, you can now get trees that have the lights already strung on them. Stringing the lights is the task, I find, that strains the Christmas spirit and the marriage. So there's that temptation, no wrestling with strings of light. And we do live an older home that's probably quite inflammible.
I'm waffling, and I'm sure that I have the authority to make the familial decision on the tree. So if you'd like to weigh in on the question of "real" versus "artificial," send an email to [email protected]
8:35 a.m. - 2005-11-13
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