This past year, my family got an artificial Christmas tree for Christmas. It’s our first one in over ten years. Most of these are first-hand experiences. Here are nine reasons you should not buy your family an artificial Christmas tree for Christmas.
#1 The Look
A main difference is the looks. Real Christmas trees look like a real tree. Artificial tree makers don’t even try to make their fake trees look real. You look at it, and all you see is plastic.
#2 The Smell
Usually, real trees smell like fresh pines. Fake trees do not. They don’t smell at all.
#3 Setting Up
Number three is just a comparison. Setting up the tree (not the decorations, lights, and garland), a real and artificial tree, took about the same time.
#4 The “Branches”
To set up a fake tree, you must bend the branches the way you want them. As I was bending them out, one of them just broke off. I can see that in the next three years, maybe even next year, the branches will start breaking off. The reason is that you have to bend them when you set the tree up, and you’ll have to bend the branches when you pack it up.
#5 Part 1: Decorating
Another comparison right here. Actually decorating the tree with all the ornaments, lights, and garland took about the same time on both the real and artificial tree. I will admit it; the decorating was easier on the artificial tree than a real one because you can just lift the whole branch.
#6 Part 2: Decorating
While we were decorating, the branches were not as sturdy as we wanted them to be to hold the lights and ornaments. They were fragile.
#7 The “Needles”
I had thought that at least I wouldn’t have to vacuum up all the fallen needles as I had for past Christmas trees. But, alas, that was not the truth. By the end of bending out the branches as I wanted them, there were needles everywhere on the ground. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are going to be needles on the ground when we pack it up and when we set it up next year.
#8 Storage
While we have not stored our fake tree yet, past experience proves this point. Unless you have a really good cat, or you have some magic powder that keeps away mice, more than likely, next Christmas, when you open the artificial Christmas tree box, there might be mice in it and their nests. Also, if you got a pre-decorated tree, if one light goes out, they all go out. So if the mice eat the wire to the lights, you won’t have a lit-up tree.
#9 The Price
The last reason you should not buy an artificial Christmas tree for Christmas is that it costs more than an real, average seven-foot Christmas tree. The artificial tree cost about $120. A live, seven-foot tree cost about $90-$100. With the price difference, you should just get a live tree.
