Artificial Christmas tree: a good alternative to a real Christmas tree?

Dear users, dear authors,
Would you like an artificial Christmas tree?

Dear Josefa,
as they say?! Never ever
😉

Personally, I’m not a big fan either. We always have a “regular” real tree.

When it comes to sustainability, I think it’s a nicer alternative to buy a potted tree and plant it outside after Christmas.
Or to decorate a tree right outside in the garden. (Of course, this only works if you have a garden with a tree.)

I don’t think artificial trees are ugly across the board. There are some really great ones out there! But I just can’t picture one in our living room at home :) 

Yes, we do have a small but lovely Christmas tree. I decorate it every year and we like it. We have a small apartment and no room at all for a big real tree.
Here are two pictures of our little tree, one with lights and one without.

Best regards, Inge

Just like Inge, we also had a small artificial tree in a pot, which I placed inside an artificial Christmas wreath and decorated.
We just don’t have enough space for a big tree.
Maybe this year I won’t put up a tree at all, but instead use lighted rods with decorations in a large floor vase.

When I was a kid, we always had a real Christmas tree. We’d pick one out and haul it home. It always seemed to have grown a bit crooked or been missing some branches. Then we’d spend time in the living room sawing, screwing, drilling, and covering up the imperfections. In the end, we’d hang ornaments and lots of tinsel on it, and then it looked nice. It brought us joy for a while, until it started shedding its needles. After that, it helped warm the room. We still had an open fireplace back then. It crackled and popped and smelled spicy.

But TODAY, no tree has to lose its life because of me. The option of getting a potted Christmas tree and then planting it outside is also out of the question for me. I don’t want any conifers in my garden. People used to do that all around here. The result is that the conifers have now grown enormous and are robbing all other plants—and the people in their homes—of light and air. Add to that the droughts of recent years. Now you constantly hear chainsaws, and everyone is cutting down their conifers.

We’ve settled on an artificial tree for indoors. There are definitely some beautiful ones available. And I can reuse it every year without having to spend extra money.

If I want to see, touch, or smell a real conifer, I’ll go for a walk in the woods. That’s where the firs and spruces are better off.

Best regards, Ina

We have a huge pine tree in the garden, and every year we cut a branch off it.

It then stands in the living room, all crooked and lopsided. We decorate it, and it looks wonderful. What I especially like about a real tree is its scent. 

If there ever comes a time when we have nothing left to cut in the garden, then we’ll decide what to do next. 

I had an artificial Christmas tree for several years a few years ago.

I’d buy one again if I had the space for it.

We don’t have a real tree anymore—just an artificial decoration with slender, snow-covered little trees and LED lights—since we don’t have enough space here.
Back in our old house, we used to have a huge real tree every year; it was an older building, so the tree reached all the way to the ceiling and was correspondingly wide at the bottom.

No, I don’t like them. If I ever don’t have enough space for a little tree, I use a few branches in a vase, just like my grandma used to do back then. 
By the front door, I always have a very small one in a pot during Advent; it lasts a few years before it gets too big. Then it goes into the garden.
Best regards, Marita 

Until three years ago, I had a small artificial Christmas tree because, after moving, I didn’t have enough space for a real one.
But I didn’t like it anymore.
Now I make arrangements using fir branches in larger flower pots or bowls.
I decorate them with mini string lights and small baubles—some store-bought, some crocheted by me—as well as stars and so on.
It smells just like Christmas. That’s what I missed about the artificial tree.
Best regards, Marina 

No, I’m in favor of a living tree that can then continue living in the garden afterward.
We avoid plastic wherever we can.
I wouldn’t want to miss the scent of green needles during the Christmas season. 
But I completely understand that people choose something else when their options are limited.
My motto: to each their own

Best regards, Angi

My grandma used to have an artificial tree that was packed in pieces in a box, and every year we would put it together and decorate it together all over again. It was pretty funny, because it looked different every year 😁
At our house, we had a very large real tree with big red baubles and silver tinsel, and there were real candles plus a string of lights... that scent of fir and burning candles 😍
These days it’s “harder”; in recent years, now that there are only two of us, we don’t really want a tree at all — “well, it’s not really necessary.” ... which always ends with me heading out again at the last minute to get one...
Somehow, it’s just part of it.
With an artificial one, I somehow “miss” the scent...
But it would probably be an “alternative.” ...

Hello,
we’ve had an “artificial” one for a year now and are very happy with it; I get the “scent” with a few real branches standing in a bowl on the table.
Every year it was almost stressful—my husband is a perfectionist—until we found the right tree 🙄
The real ones (if you don’t want one that’s too big) were usually too wide too, and then the trimming would start, and once we finally had it, it felt like it had cost a “fortune”; they get more expensive every year—and all that for a few weeks, it didn’t have to be.
Then my husband would also chase after every fallen needle and would have preferred to throw it out after just 3 weeks (depending on the quality of the tree).
But I’d love to leave it up all through January 😇
So now we both get something out of it, don’t have to discuss the weather (I’m not buying one in wet weather/with a wet tree; the car would get dirty ...)—this way it’s relaxed: he gets it out of the barn when it suits him (and the weather) (that’s where our tree spends the summer, already fully assembled), then it gets decorated again, done. 😉