Now, this may not be a new thing, but they are new to me. I just saw my first one this year. Basically, it's an artificial Christmas tree, with the lights already on it. All you have to do is to set the thing down on the floor, and maybe hang a few balls if you like. Most of the ones I saw looked pretty well finished - you could get away with not adding anything.

So - is this a good idea, or an abomination? Personally, for me, it is not the product, but the process - that is, we enjoy going and getting our tree (we often used to go out and cut one down) we enjoy giving it an evening in the house to thaw out and open, enjoy decorating, just generally enjoy the whole process. If we didn't, we probably would just not bother having a tree at all - there really are no rules after all, you don't have to do anything for Christmas you don't want to. Buying it already done for you is kinda beside the point - like buying Christmas cookies.

So, do you look at something like this as a sensible time saver, or as a silly waste of money? (or anything in between)

Our way is similar to yours, Agony. There is a Christmas tree farm not far from here and half of the fun is picking out our own tree and chopping it down. It's part of the whole 'tree-trimming' process at our house. We set aside an evening for it. My husband puts the lights on ( I hate that part) and the kids and I hang the baubles...(later on after the kids are in bed I usually rearrange them as the boys usually hang them all in the same spot near the bottom). This year after we decorated the tree, the boys and I decorated cookies that I had made earlier in the day. They love to put on sprinkles and smarties. Hopefully we are creating family memories they will never forget.

All being well, we'll be getting our tree up next weekend! We have had a real one for about ten or twelve years now (not the same one, a different one every year!)...and we've been lucky with needles, not too many dropping! Mum always does the tree, but I do my bit by making tree decorations for it each year (and sending some to other people too!)

Real trees are terribly expensive here as they are all imported. So we have to have an artificial one. They seem to have had ones here with lights (and even music!) for a while now. I really would prefer a real one. I am going back to England for Christmas. There had better be a real tree!

Real trees are so beautiful Unfortunately, that is not the case here. I have never seen a real Christmas tree here. All the trees I've seen in different houses, stores and buildings since I can remember are artificial. But they usually don't come with the lights and decorations. People just buy a green plastic tree and then buy the lights and the decorations and put them in the tree. I don't like them, but I guess it is what is used here, because there aren't places where you can go and pick up a tree, I've never seen a place like that. The worst trees are the ones that are painted white so as to create the idea of a snowy Christmas tree.

We have a plastic Christmas tree, which I don't like, but the decorations are pretty nice. I'd love to have a real Christmas tree someday. I wonder why we don't have that tradition here. There's no comparison between real Christmas trees and the artificial ones.

Growing up in a rural area and having a large piece of land, we never considered a plastic tree or even buying a real one. [ We weren't being snobbish -it's just that no one where I'm from would think of buying a Christmas tree back then.

That was many years ago, and these days I have adjusted to the idea of finding one at a tree farm or even at the store. Just so it smells real and we can pick one out together, drag it home and spend the evening decorating it.

I'm going to speak up in favour of artificial trees. Between my husband's fear of fires (he caught fire when he was 16 and spent a few weeks on the burn unit) and my reluctance to kill a tree for a couple of weeks, we have always had artificial.

I've always prefered real trees, but it's not something I have the space for or the money at the moment, but I do have a nice little artificial tree. For me, I don't like the prelit ones, because I like to have the option of choosing the lights myself. I've been on a realy vintage kick the last couple of years, and I have dozens of Shiney Bright (real ones, not the new replicas) and other vintage ornaments from the 40's and 50's, and last year I found 6 boxes of pink vintage lights with the pointy plastic flowers on them. They're so great, but if I had a prelit tree I really wouldn't be able to use them lest my tree blind someone. This year, my best friend got me a silver tinsel tree for my birthday, too, so now I'll be able to have two trees, one atop the side table and one atop the dog's kennel, and room for all my great vintage bulbs. Plus, what's better than a silver tinsel tree with pink lights? Nothing, that's what!

I've never quite been comfortable with the idea of chopping down a poor tree, humiliating it by dressing it up in tinsel, hanging things on its poor branches, and then rejoicing and celebrating around its dying corpse. So, I'm starting to favor pretend trees nowadays.

That said, real trees sure smell good

Terry

I'm allergic to the real thing, so I have a very real looking artificial one. To make up for the scent, I burn pine scented candles.

I like the idea of the prelit ones for people who don't have the time or inclination to do the lights themselves, but I would rather do it myself. Putting the ornaments on is the fun part, so even if I had a prelit one, I would have to finish it with ornaments.

Our pretend tree (good description Terry) is on it's tenth season (although we're onto the third stand!).
Over those ten years it has also had three different lighting schemes - so I tend to agree that the prelit ones are rather limiting in that respect.
This year my daughter took control and wanted a red and gold theme. With very few exceptions, everything hanging from the tree (except the white lights) has red or gold on it somewhere. She essentially got rid of some old teal coloured balls that she really hated, and a few other thing. I played along and bought some more red and gold balls, and I have to admit that it's the best looking tree we've ever had.

We have an artificial tree with fibre-optic strands running through it. The light at the tips change colour as a disc in the base revolves. Hung with tinsel and decorations handmade by Mrs TW, the artificial tree looks good in my opinion. We used to have real trees but are just as happy with the plastic one that can be used year after year. No more needles everywhere either.

We have several large conifers in the garden and our cat, a white chinchilla, often lies under them getiing covered in dead needles. It's bad enough removing these without also having him pick them up from an inside tree.
We have two large artificial trees, one of which is green and very realistic, the other being white. Both look great when decorated and are used every year with a slightly different, and improved light and decoration sceme.
Some of the fibre optic artificial lighted trees look great in darkness or dimmed light, and are great for small rooms.

I just got my tree today,a real one of course. My mother-in-law gave us a tree one year that was silver and had a color wheel that turned and made the tree different colors. My son who was five at the time cried, he said that is not a real Christmas tree.So ever since we have had a real one. My husband, who passed away several years ago, and I used to cut our own. I don't feel bad about cutting a tree, lots more grow back, and since I live in West Virginia there are lots to choose from. I bought mine off a lot today, and will put it up next week end, so when my son and daughter-in-law comes for Christmas he will not cry-lol

Right, the problem with christmas trees is... well, it isn't really a problem, so much, but... They have tree farms. The farms grow the trees specifically for harvest at Christmastime. They have numerous generations of trees going all at once, and the trees are going to be cut down no matter what. I don't get guilt from taking a tree off a lot, or cutting one down at a tree farm. Those trees are doomed anyway. They'll be cut down whether you buy one or not. If you went out and contributed to deforestation, it might be different, but with commercially grown trees, the biggest reason not to buy them is the resources a tree farm takes up, which in this part of the country isn't enough to justify a boycott.

Noboday's talking a boycott, just a preference!

Personally, I'm less interested in whether people use a real or fake tree, and more in the sort of 'do it yourself' aspect of Christmas. In our house, we would far rather have a kinda ugly Charlie Brown tree that we had all participated in getting, putting up, decorating, etc, than a really beautiful tree that was bought ready made.
Our tree is covered in really quite ugly homemade decorations, (not quite so much now as in the kids' younger years, but we still have plenty of sentimental favorites) mismatched and ratty bulbs, etc.
Cookie baking day is eagerly looked forward to - the kids have gone through some really strange phases in the baking and decorating - some of my son's cookie snowmen look like they were designed by Calvin of "Calvin and Hobbes". We've had heavily armed Santas, extremely pink and *beautiful* angels, covered heavily in silver sprinkles, you get the idea. It's one of the most fun days we have all year - but there are seldom any cookies that could be presented to company!

To me, this is what Christmas means - family fun, sentiment, and no emphasis whatsoever on perfection. I know from being at other people's houses though, that not everybody feels this way about it. My husband, in fact, has needed some persuasion at times. He tends to think that it matters what the tree looks like. For myself, I have to say I miss those years when all the decorations were on the botton third of the tree, hung by tiny children.

My mom used to yell at everybody, in order to get the house decorated the way she liked it - if you hung an ornament too close to another of the same colour, she'd make you move it. I think I'm having a reaction to that mindset. From what I see around me, and hear in the advice columns and women's magazines at Christmas time, a lot of people need Christmas to be 'perfect'. I don't for a minute think that anybody here is the kind of person who would yell at a child who hung an ornament wrong, but I'm interested in where you think you come down, on the continuum.

I have to agree. Over the years we have had many hand made ornaments on the tree. With a 14 and a 16 year old in the house, there aren't too many of those left, but there are still some there.
However we all still decorate together, and it was my daughter who opted for a red and gold theme, and took charge of that. She has also really gotten into wrapping this year, and at her request I have bought an assortment of ribbon for her to be creative with.
My son is less interested, but did participate in the tree trimming, and wandered around the house placing sprigs of holly and silk poinsettias (none of which have been shifted from where he put them).
Every year they work out their differences in making a gingerbread house (from a kit), which they begin to break apart and eat between Christmas and New Years.
Every year (for 9 years now) we have been making our own Christmas crackers, and although I do most of the buying for this (searching for unique stuffers from wherever we go on vacation), they are involved in the making of the crackers. We make them for both extended families, so there are about 25 to make in total.
I find perfection a tad boring.

We have an artificial tree, partly because I share Terry's and skunkee's sentiments about killing a tree for the sake of a couple of weeks, plus my sister-in-law is allergic to the real ones. However, we did make sure that we bought a good quality tree that looks real, and not a cheap, tacky one.

Our tree is covered in homemade ornaments, each of which has sentimental value. I don't really care for themes and colour schemes. I like a riot of colour and nothing matching! Coolcat90 usually decorates the tree for me. We started a tradition when she was born. Every year we buy her a special ornament, so by the time she is an adult and ready for a tree of her own, she'll have a box of ornaments, each of which will have meaning.

The first year we were married, I decided to string real popcorn to decorate the tree. Have you ever done that? Never again! It was a royal pain in the a*se. So I bought fake popcorn for my fake tree and I love it!

I haven't strung popcorn since I was a kid! I had no idea that you could buy fake stuff!
For the record, I have never done a colour scheme before either - this was entirely my daughter's idea!

Sorry, I didn't mean to suggest that anyone was talking about boycotting. I do know people who do that, though. I fully understand the preference of not killing a tree just to decorate your home for a few weeks. I have artifical trees, though I like the scent of pine. That's why, instead of having a real tree, I keep pine branches, taken sparingly from living trees, as greenery at the door and on some tables around the house. That way I get the arome without killing a tree, and the hassel that goes with it. I only meant that tree farm trees are cut down every generation regardless, and for me that would lessen the guilt somewhat if I did choose to have a real tree.

We have had a real tree every year, except when the children were crawling (they are now aged 8 and 5). They love decorating it. We have a number of steam locomotive decorations that are ceremoniously placed on the tree in the 'shed' and 'chuffed' along the tinsel tracks now and again. I love to see their enthusiasm and, even though their decorating skills are not uqite honed to perfection, they make the tree a riot of colour and decorate it with great excitement. It's lovely!

By the way, I heard a radio programme (Radio 4 for fellow Brits) which concluded that real trees are actually kinder to the environment than the artificial variety...)

My parents decided to be ecological way before it was cool and constructed a Swedish tree. I'm not sure it it's anything to do with Sweden, but it's made of light wood and has brass hooks on it for ornaments. It's partly because we could not stand to see all the Christmas trees in the gutter afterwards.

I used to have a Norfolk pine tree in a pot in Hawaii, and then, did this when I lived in an apartment with the kids.
The tree was with us all year round, and we respected it. We gave it to someone when we left that area too.

I love real trees, but, I cannot bear the thought of all that cutting. So if I get a real one I try to have it in a pot and plant it later.

In Indiana this is what I did, tried to plant it. It died, but I tried.

I now have an artificial one, and it's got the lights built into it. What I like is that, you don't have to worry about having enough outlets, and the dicey arrangements with extension chords etc. We already have that for the front yard's decorations, and the tree doesn't have to be a hassle.

It isn't as nice as the ones we had in the past, but we compensate with other decorations elsewhere.

I'm surprised more places don't have the type of program we do. If you have a real christmas tree, all you have to do is leave it on your curb the first Monday after Christmas, and for a couple of Monday's after that, and the city picks them all up and chops them up for mulch on the park trails. They get almost all the mulch they need for the whole warm season, so it saves the city a ton of money and the trees are go to a good use after being decoration. It works really well.