The Christmas Tree Dilemma: Real? Fake?

Ted and I have the same exact argument every year. It goes like this:

Me: I want to get a Christmas tree this weekend!
Ted: Great, so we can have a tree that was sprayed with pesticides and shipped hundreds of miles dying in our living room?
Me: Grinch.
Ted: Well, Miss Sustainable Scoop, you know I’m right, don’t you?
Me: But… they’re pretty.

But, of course, I know he’s right. And getting a fake tree isn’t an option, since most fake tree manufacturers still use PVC in their trees, and I don’t need that off-gassing in my living room, thanks. So, this year, we’re going to solve the yearly tree dilemma by doing something new: we’re going to buy a live tree.

I don’t mean that we’re going to go cut down a live tree, which, actually, would be a good way for those of you who can find it to enjoy a Christmas tree that wasn’t shipped from five states over. No, we’re going to buy a tree in a pot, one that we can put outside during the rest of the year. Of course, this will be cumbersome and heavy, and eventually we will have to plant the tree when it gets to be too large to haul in and out every year. But we looked at the price of living trees, and it’s actually cheaper to get a standard-height live tree and use that for a few years that it is to buy a cut tree every single year.

Sustainable and cost-efficient? Ur doin it rite!

So, I’ll keep you updated on our new living tree experiment. I’ll let you know how it smells, how the ornaments look, and how the animals react to it. Basically, by the end of this holiday season, we’ll all know whether our live tree idea is brilliant, or brilliantly bad. Either way, this should be fun! Happy holidays!