The Case for an Artificial Tree

I'm a real tree girl. I just am. I like the way real trees look and feel and smell. I even kind of like the little needles that drop all over the house. I smile a little when I am STILL vacuuming them up in February (or May or September.) We have had an artificial tree only once - when we were living in Rhode Island and came home to our house in Virginia for Christmas. I HATED it. I even put the smelly sticks in it so I could pretend it was real. The next year, it was back to real trees for us.

THIS year, we found a beautiful tree. We decorated it and watered it faithfully. It served us well. On the day after Christmas, we noticed that the needles were starting to fall and the branches were starting to droop ever so slightly. In the interest of safety (especially after the little fire outside just before Christmas), we unplugged the tree. I finally got around to taking it down today - 3 days later.

This tree had gone from beautiful to brittle. Not quite sure how that happened. As I took the ornaments off, 15 needles would fall. If I pulled too hard, little branches would come off. I gave up on the lights and threw the thing out onto the deck with 2 strings of lights still on. It took 30 minutes to sweep and vacuum the mini tree that had dropped all over the floor.

I am sure that you are wondering why I didn't water the tree. Well, it didn't need it. There was always water in the tree stand. In fact, a good amount dumped out all over my floor and the deck when I was fighting the thing outside. Looks like would perfect Christmas tree decided that it just wasn't thirsty anymore and just stopped drinking. The only remedy would have been to saw off a little bit from the bottom to give it a fresh cut.

I thought for a moment about switching next year to an artificial tree. The thought quickly passed. Next year, we will just wait a little longer to buy the tree. My year wouldn't be complete if I wasn't vacuuming up pine needles through the summer.