I’d love to ditch the tree as well but my DH handles it all so I go along. He only does real trees.
2 Likes
I have a teeny (less than 18”) little decorated tabletop tree from my grandparents. Admittedly one of the reasons I keep it is that someday we may end up giving away the big tree and decorations.
1 Like
Aha! I should have said it’s not full height! I think it’s about 4.5’ - I put it on a long bench (that’s pulled forward from the wall about a foot) in front of the window and have several of the nutcrackers around it on either side. It appears full height from outside, and honestly with all the nutcrackers around it I don’t miss the full height as there’s so much surrounding it.
(While I have about 10 nutcrackers from the Erzgebirge from when I was young, my folks gave each of their grandchildren a nutcracker from infancy until they turned 18 - so we have a lot of special nutcrackers in our house!)
2 Likes
The real tree is the last Christmas tradition I would abandon. I can pretty much do without most if not all of the others. I love the smell of a Fraser fir (and no I don’t want to just spray that smell from a can), I long ago gave up hope that anyone would help decorate so I now enjoy decorating it the way I want to with the ornaments collected over the years that bring me the most joy, I love sitting and enjoying the colored lights in the early darkness of December. OK, I hate cleaning up all the needles after removing it on New Year’s Day but overall it’s definitely one of my favorite parts of the season.
7 Likes
Our eldest son convinced us to ditch the “real” cut tree about 4-5 years ago. Instead we invested in a very nice full size fake tree (hard to tell the difference without studying it closely) with integrated lights and went to a nursery and bought a small blue spruce and a large planter pot. The real spruce sits outside all year and comes in for the month of December and sits next to the fake tree. We add lights to it too. It provides the smell of fresh pine and no trees are sacrificed in the process. The fake tree was so nice that we bought a second one for the master bedroom (which doubles as my home office) so we can enjoy it all the time.
6 Likes
I feel for you all!
Our menorahs stay out all year, there are some Chanukah table and kitchen linens in a drawer, plus a couple of books. All other decor fits in a popcorn tin and most of it doesn’t come out unless son is visiting.
13 Likes
I don’t think you are alone in feeling this way!
I have a friend who switched to a small, thin, pre lit, pre decorated tree. She just pulls it out of a closet and plugs it in.
1 Like
Exactly the opposite. H and I were both raised Jewish, and raised our kids in the religion, as well. I have always wanted a Christmas tree, and kind of figured once my parents and in-laws were no longer alive, I’d finally get one. In 2020, I decided I was not going to wait any longer and we got one that year, and have every year since. I love it! I figure I have 30-40 years to get tired of the ritual 
19 Likes
I’ll decorate the heck out of our (artificial) tree, with my daughter there, for as long as she is there to see it and love it. Right now, it’s first year of college and no boyfriend/other family on the horizon. 
5 Likes
We used to get one real tree and then my beautiful fake tree. I never thought DH would give up the real tree, but he did…a few years ago. So we just have one tree…and two trees full of ornaments. DD has her box of ornaments, and her collection of Nutcrackers (she puts them on her stairs. It looks great). I wish she would take the snow globes and at least half of the Christmas mugs. I actually like the snow globes and put them on our piano.
We have nice holiday dining room set up…and we will do that again, because we like it, and we have holiday placemats for the kitchen.
We used to have sheets, pot holders, dish towels (we still have some) and towels for all the bathrooms. We do have hand towels for the power set room, but none of the others.
And a wreath for the front door.
DH says…no more real poinsettias, so we have two very good looking fakes we will use instead.
We do put up stockings. Just for us…and the cat.
8 Likes
My people!
We’ve always had fake trees, but this year I didn’t even want to do that. I needed something easy and peaceful. I originally was just going to do a pretty mantle until I saw HER - a four foot tree that reminded me of the vintage aluminum trees my aunt had. A few red ornaments from a local store and I love it. She glows, and looks great with my mantle decorations.
18 Likes
I watched a documentary about how they get seeds for real trees. Men climb extremely high trees without safety gear and several of them fall to their deaths. Then the fungicides they put on their trees….
I bought a wooden tree which gets assembled and un assembled every year. This year I bought a small fake tree as well, because too many people complained that they missed the green
The tree was from a place called hello yellow house. I couldn’t paste the link here, but you can look them up.
Maybe this works…
https://www.■■■■■■■■/shop/Helloyellowhouse
1 Like
I still love the tree as do my grown kids. It is a lot of work. This year we host Christmas for the family so no question about getting the tree. One of our kid helps us get it and bring it into and out of the house. I also like to support our local garden center where we get the tree (paying a bit of premium I am sure).
Putting it up, I enjoy seeing my ornaments each year. Taking it down is not fun.
I have reduced the other decorations I take out and put up.
Why do they need to climb trees to get seeds? Pinecones = seeds. Aren’t pinecones either available lower down, or even on the ground?
1 Like
I still enjoy having a real Christmas tree each year and H still loves decorating the outside of our house for Christmas.
I think everyone should do what they want to at Christmas and others should not judge them for how much or how little they do.
7 Likes
I wonder if hosting the big thanksgiving e try year has something to do with my lack of enthusiasm over the Christmas tree. After cleaning, planning, prepping, decorating , cooking, and then cleanup …I’m just nor in the mood for more work.
Do those of you who still love putting up the tree do all the Thanksgiving work, too. I really think my attitude would be different if I had a break.
3 Likes
I’m kind of feel the same way. The “we” in our family keeps getting smaller every year and the youngest among us are a continent away. Thanksgiving is when my siblings and Significant Others arrange to get together and Christmas is just too soon to do it all again. Would love a Balsam but that’s like having an extra coffee table stuck in a closet all year and just as heavy to move. Some years, I will put the electric train set on a card table for my own amusement. Here’s hoping the transformer is still in good shape!
2 Likes
We have always gone to my parents home (2 hour drive) for Thanksgiving so I never had to get ready for this holiday and then turn around and do Christmas. My dad’s health is not good now and Thanksgiving is not at my parents house this year. Our family will just have a small dinner here tomorrow and my brothers families are doing their own things too.
I am thankful that last Thanksgiving my parents had their 3 children and 8 grandchildren at their home and that we got a wonderful picture in front of their orange tree with everyone.
I think you should do whatever brings you happiness for Christmas. If you don’t want a tree then don’t get one and don’t let anyone make you feel bad!
7 Likes
I do all the thanksgiving day cooking with some help from my D but I still like putting up the tree and decorating because it’s a group activity. (H helps too). I would be salty if it all fell on me!
4 Likes
And she matches the cat!!!