OK, it's a struggle getting it into the car and it leaves a mess. You have to cut off the bottom few inches and trim the low branches. Putting it in place can be no joke and leads to many an argument - "it's straight dear - no it's not from my side" and so on.
The needles drop and get everywhere and you'll be finding them until next Christmas. Afterwards you need to dispose of it and can never get all the needles out of the car.
A big pain all round.
But I will never stop having a real tree - the smell wafting across in the morning as you open the door brings back memories of Christmas past - lovely.
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Used to be able to get quite a big one in the Mondeo estate...
Still, there's always the roof rack eh ?
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I have a black fake affair and I light a pine cone candle...
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That some kind of druid thing Stu?
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>> The needles drop and get everywhere and you'll be finding them until next
>> Christmas.
Trees are harvested quite a while in advance. If you can get a fresh one to put up on Christmas Eve, it'll last the 12 days quite easily. If you put one up now, as I have observed some spoilsports doing, you deserve all you get!
>> Afterwards you need to dispose of it and can never get all the
>> needles out of the car.
a) Chop it up and butn it on the fire or in the garden.
b) Wrap the tree in cling-film before putting it in the car.
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(c) Chop it up and put it in the garden waste bin. Unless it's really too big.
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Put mine through the shredder and use it as mulch
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dissolve two or three jellies in a bucket of water, and when coolish stand your tree in it. The tree will take up the jelly-water and as the water expires, it leaves the gelatine behind, in the sap-channels, which stops your tree dying out and the dreaded needle-drop!
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It is a plastic one for us again this year :( I cannot justify buying a real one when my parents can't even afford the mortgage. £40 cash in their hands will be far better.
It is a real shame as I love real trees but they do make a mess as well and frankly I cannot be bothered any more. The plastic thing is 7ft and with all the lights it will do. We also have two fir trees in the garden planted over where some of our cats have been buried. I put lights on that which are solar powered which don't work in the winter but they use AA rechargable batteries so just charge them up via the mains.
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Xmas eve is the main event for many Europeans and I'll never forget the Christmas spent with my German girlfriend, we hand picked our own Xmas tree growing on Davidstowe Moor in Nth. Cornwall.
My job was to 'dress' the tree while Margo made the Baumkuchen, and cooked her goose, the tree looked absolutely stunning by the time I'd finished with it.
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Agree with Dulwich on this one.
We have always had artificial trees until we were out our house in rented accomodation a couple of years ago and got a real one. That was a comedy of errors.
We bought the big plant pot thing to put it in and bought some compost to weigh it down. First thing my wife did when we got it into the house was cut all the netting off it. That should have been the last thing we did!
When we came to put the compost in, discovered the compost was frozen solid. So living in rented I didn't have all the tools to hand that I would have at home so proceeded to attack the compost with everything from bread knifes to spaghetti servers and everything in between that would chip some compost off. Was so funny.
So last year we bought the triangular xmas tree stand thing and didn't remove the net till everything was in place. Smells great and our council will uplift it from your garden in the New Year.
Needles make a mess but if its in the corner of a room with wooden flooring its relatively easy to sweep up.
My father, goes to the opposite extreme. He has a 4 foot artificial tree that, for the last 15 years now, has been put straight up in the loft with the decorations etc all attached and pulled out the next year, all still intact. Has once had to buy new lights for it but other than that, it hasn't changed one iota in those 15 years.
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"Nothing beats a real Christmas Tree"
Couldn't agree more.
That's why I prefer to have nothing.
(We usually do have nothing, by the way - but last year my wife managed to find our wee artificial tree, so we had something.)
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We have a tree in a pot. It lives outside most of the year, and then is brought in at Christmas. It grows about an inch every year.
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I prefer to have no xmas decs at all. After many years in retail, and not being religious, the whole thing annoys me. Much better to spend time in my local, apart from around xmas when the 'yearlies' attend, and spend money elsewhere, preferably skiing.
Xmascards. Bah humbug.
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We got this 7.5ft thing from the garden centre the berk who sold it said just water it every other day as this will stop the pine needles dropping off and then you can plant it in the garden after xmas.
Did it? did it chuff the needles fell off by about 40 a day the Hoover was never out of the room, Yes it did smell nice for a tree & then to top it off on january 6th when the bucket was wacked off and a hole was dug in the frosty garden there were no roots on the tree.!"!!!!!!!!
Who was the berk the one who sold it or the one who bought it.!! I know who it was...................
Artifical now with all the silly lights that goes with it, Do i like xmas? Humbug.............lol..
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If you buy a Nordman fir spare a thought for these guys. Heard their extraordinary story on radio today.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11863768
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Nothing beats a real Christmas Tree - Runfer D'Hills
