ModernChristmasTrees.com offers a modern twist on the traditional holiday tree. (Photo: JC Buck )
It’s a timeless holiday question — real tree or artificial? Turns out, there are advantages to both.
Opting for artificial offers the freedom to start decorating as early as you please — no worries about drying needles — and to set up several trees throughout your house, thanks to the many sizes available on the market, from miniature table-toppers to 10-foot-plus centerpieces.
“I put my trees up so early, I could never have a real one,” explains Jodi Pirkl, a realtor in Bismarck, N.D., who starts decorating her three large trees and dozen or more small trees that fill all the rooms of her home every year on Nov. 1. “The best compliment someone could give me is to walk in my house and say, ‘It looks like Christmas threw up in here,’” Pirkl jokes.
Some love the magic of their artificial trees so much, they keep them up nearly year-round. In Biloxi, Miss., Amy Rosonet LeBert’s tree stays up well past Christmas so she can switch out ornaments and use the tree as a centerpiece in her décor for other holidays. “My favorite thing is the lights. Being in a room with the Christmas tree — or Mardi Gras or Easter tree — just brings a warmth to my house that just doesn’t feel the same when the tree is down,” she says.
Artificial trees also lend themselves to fun trends: dressing an all-white tree as a snowman or having themed mini trees that kids can adopt as their own. Plus, there are artificial trees to fit every style — whether you’re looking for a hot pink showstopper, modern minimalist design or one so lifelike your guests will swear it’s real.
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“Mimicking nature is what people love us for, and it’s why we exist as a brand,” says Balsam Hill CEO Thomas Harman. “Making our trees more and more realistic is something we obsess over, and it’s my passion.”
For natural tree devotees, though, no artificial branches, no matter how realistic, can ever replace the experience of picking out the real thing. Real trees spread that classic, natural evergreen smell throughout the home, often for the whole holiday season. They can also be sustainably mulched or recycled for firewood — or even repurposed as fish habitats in local lakes (check with your city) after the holidays are done.
For many families, the annual trip to a tree farm is one of the key traditions that help make the holidays so special. Alicen Limestoll of Andover, Ohio, and her four children — ranging in age from 12 to their 20s — make time to gather for a family trek to the same northern Ohio tree farm they’ve been visiting since the kids were small. Now that her oldest son is stationed at an Army base in Anchorage, Alaska, and her daughter has started college, the chance to reconnect this winter while enjoying hot cocoa among the evergreens will be even more special. “It’s always been such a nice outing for our family,” says Limestoll, who makes her tree last well into January by watering it overnight in the bathtub before decorating.
“There’s a completely different Christmas experience a family has if they go to get a real tree, as opposed to dragging a box out of the basement or attic or garage,” says Tim O’Connor, executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association, a trade group that promotes the benefits of farm-grown trees.
Perhaps so. But whether you opt for real or artificial, there’s no debating one holiday truth: Christmas trees are magical.
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USA TODAY's Modern Woman Magazine (Photo: Ricky Middlesworth)
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