Should I buy a 'real' Christmas tree or stick with artificial?

Black_Cat2

Hi all

For many years I've toyed with the idea of buying a 'living' Christmas tree instead of my 20 year old artificial one.  Now I know the 'green' thing to do is to stick with my artificial one but is there much of an impact on the environment by buying a real one?

A friend of mine grows a tree in a pot outside which he brings in every Christmas.  I don't want to go that far and wouldn't want to 'de-critter' it every year either lol.

Interested in your views and nearer the time even more interested in any pics you have 🐈

Farway

Considering real trees are grown as a cash crop, like cabbages but more seasonal, they are already growing & probably cut by now so whatever environmental impact there is / was has already occurred so you buying one will have nil impact, except for the fuel you use to get one

What will have a bigger impact is the money you spend in supporting a local grower / supplier in this Corona V year

Go for it, support your local businesses

DD265

You might be able to rent a real tree now. I'm not sure where you are, but here's an example: https://www.rooted-christmastrees.com/
I thought it was one of the best ideas I'd seen in a long time, as I am not a fan of chopping a tree down just so I can have a pretty thing inside my house (and just sprung for an expensive artificial one to keep for 20+ years!).

ETA, I am aware that the carbon footprint of an artificial tree is significantly higher, but hoping that balances out by keeping it for a long time!

twopenny

A real tree is lovely. There's something special about it.

But I don't like the idea of trees being mass produced and sent to the garbage any more that turkeys mass bred for the day.

Then again as said, they will be cut by now.

Always used to have a real tree but reclaimed/recycled an artificial one that has been with me for 20yrs so surely the carbon footprint is smaller than vehicles to plant, maintain and harvest and shoppers driving to buy them each year should be bigger.

Davesnave

We have always bought locally, initially from a place where the kids could help choose the tree and we would know it was fresh. Riding into the forest in a trailer was all part of the fun and anticipation of Christmas. Nowadays, the 'elfin safety brigade would probably have apoplexy!

These days we're very lucky in having the plantation almost on our door step and we know the grower, so he'd even do 'bring your own chain saw' if we asked. We know the soil where the trees are isn't good, so if there were no Christmas trees, it would be another kind of woodland or scrub. It's telegraph poles across the road for that reason.

Farmers aren't daft and they don't use valuable land for marginal activity like fir tree production. It's also not just a matter of sticking the trees in and waiting, or we'd all be having a go. There are days through the year when weed control, pest inspections and similar things must be done. Then there's stuff like insurance, so when Mrs Boggis reaches too far to put her ribbon on the best tree and falls in the swamp, it's like her; covered.

However, I'm not averse to the plastic tree if it's also a long term investment to spread the environmental cost of its production. If you're in a city and the local grower is many miles away, it's maybe silly to drive miles to buy, or to pick up a tree with no provenance, though that might be avoided if you shop around.

MalMonroe

Some artificial trees now are really lifelike and don't look plastic or false at all.

For years I yearned for a real tree - one year when my daughter was about 12 I decided to go for it. I decided that it wasn't worth buying a cheap one and did research to try to find the ones that didn't shed too many needles, etc.

However, once it was in situ I kept thinking of all the insects that were probably living in it. One morning I found a worm on the floor next to the tree and that really turned me against real ones for life!  I had intended putting it outside and then bringing it in each year but that didn't work out. Besides the worm and my insect fear, the tree was too heavy for us to haul about. 

Now we have a 6ft artificial tree, it looks fairly real and we are happy with it. If that helps the environment too, so much the better. But real ones are not for us. We're just too wimpy.

Apodemus

I really don't know which is better from an environmental point of view, but unless you are really certain of the provenance of your "real" tree, don't assume it is locally grown!  I see trucks of Christmas trees starting to head off south down the A9 from early November and they are heading at least 200 miles for sale, and very probably a good 400 miles further than that!   

And these are not trees that are grown on marginal land, they are on what is locally some of the best grazing and arable land we've got, which in the past would have been small-scale, tenanted family farms run on rotational systems with sheep, cattle, potatoes, neeps and grain - the sort of farms that provided a very good mixed environment for wildlife.  Nowadays the farmhouse is sold-off, the tenants gone, and the land is under a near monoculture of small trees, managed on a large scale and tended once-a-year by a band of east European workers.  

Davesnave

Apodemus said:

And these are not trees that are grown on marginal land, they are on what is locally some of the best grazing and arable land we've got, which in the past would have been small-scale, tenanted family farms run on rotational systems with sheep, cattle, potatoes, neeps and grain - the sort of farms that provided a very good mixed environment for wildlife.  Nowadays the farmhouse is sold-off, the tenants gone, and the land is under a near monoculture of small trees, managed on a large scale and tended once-a-year by a band of east European workers. 

That's why knowing the provenance is important, not that many city dwellers will understand. It's just part of a very widespread problem with farming in this country, where investors are the new landowners and monocultures reign because of the  way it fits with machinery use.

I only have my land because it's not contiguous with the big fields nearby and just too damned awkward to farm with heavy machinery. On those fields everything is done on a contract basis, so there is no 'farmer' as such. The principal crop is maize, but a lot of it goes to biogas production and the late maturing varieties used mean bare fields in winter and huge levels soil erosion, polluting the rivers.

So, someone growing 9 or 10 acres of Christmas trees down in the valley is peeing in the wind, ecologically speaking, compared with the big guys on the hills wrecking the good soils for a much better profit, quite possibly funded by 'green' subsidies, because the infrastructure didn't pop up without considerable investment.

Rant over!

IrisB

As long as you only need a tree that isn't huge, you can keep one permanently growing in a container outdoors. I do, and the tree only comes inside for a week or so over Christmas (though not this year).  This is the greenest choice of all!

IrisB

For a plant you might buy as a permanent potted tree, look in garden centres or on on nursery websites for e.g. Picea-glauca.

Black_Cat2

Ty for the replies all 🐈

Jury is out atm.  OH is not keen on a real tree as he says he will be the one having to get rid of it, so I might need to do some convincing on that score.  I'm trying to think more environmentally overall with things so still pondering 😊