Oh it’s that time of year again! It’s almost time for Christmas trees!
I admit, I used to be an artificial tree kinda gal. My family had artificial trees for many, many years, and I got my own small, plastic tribute to the season when I moved out on my own.
And then I met Neil, who was having none of that.
So it’s been real trees ever since. They really do smell better.
Problem is, I have no idea where to get one this year. Our neighbourhood lot of years past is now a construction site. So I turned to Google for some help.
Did you know that Christmas tree sellers have not yet harnessed the power of the internets?
I know. Crazy!
But I also learned that there is a BC Christmas Tree Council. They need a council, but can’t manage to work on some SEO.
Anyhow, I digress.
The BC Christmas Tree Council at least has a website, and they have a bunch of listings for places in and around the province where one can purchase a fresh tree.
(Another aside – many of those tree farms do have websites, but my google-fu was not strong enough to find them.)
So in a couple weeks, we’ll head out and hack down one of nature’s specimens for our very own decorating pleasure. Hurrah!
Are you putting up a tree this year? Have you already? Live or Artificial?
And most importantly, settle an argument for Neil and I – white or multicoloured lights in the tree?
We may do a tree this year. Haven’t really discussed it – sometimes we put one up, sometimes we don’t bother. If we did one, it’d absolutely be artificial – cleaner, less maintenance, cheaper (we already have one).
As for lights, traditionally my family always had multicolored lights, but I’m not known for giving rat’s ass about tradition. No preference 🙂
We’ll do our usual artificial tree I guess, although I have no freakin’ idea where we’ll put it in our place. (I’m open to suggestions).
We usually do multicoloured lights because that’s what we have. And they’re pretty. And we have a string that plays very bad MIDI Christmas tunes and the lights flash in time.
We don’t have one over here (in Dublin), mostly because neither of us is usually at the apartment over Christmas – I’m in Vancouver and he’s down in Tipperary – but also because, like you guys, I wouldn’t have the first clue where to get a real, live Christmas tree in Dublin. And yes, it definitely has to be real. With multicoloured lights.
At home the family usually goes to the Boy Scouts Christmas tree lot at Park Royal, as past forays into “cut your own” usually ended in disaster. We almost always get the slightly wonky “Charlie Brown” trees as well. 🙂
Interesting thing about new partners — you get to find out their quirks about holidays.
THANK GOODNESS Nick is into Christmas. I’m not sure what I’d do if I wound up with another “holidays are for chumps” guy. Bah.
We’re doing a real tree this year. And since we have a loft with ultra-high ceilings, we can get a BIG freaking tree. I want to be able to decorate this thing from the second floor, damnit.
I was always a “fake tree at my place, real tree at the parents” since I usually spend my christmasses with them… but this year, I’m pretty pleased to be getting a real tree.
I also had to have the discussion of decorations: ie, is he the type to decorate it in perfectly matching baubles so that it looks like it came from a catalogue, or do I get to have my messy “Ornaments! ORNAMENTS EVERYWHERE!” style that I grew up with. Good news: He’s not picky.
ORNAMENTS EVERYWHERE!
Ok, to be honest, there’d be ornaments everywhere whether he liked it or not, but it saves me from having to convince him to let me have my way. 😀
Not sure what color lights we’ll be doing. All of mine are white, and I haven’t gone through his yet. Perhaps both. 🙂
White lights are for people being adults.
Colored lights are for people being kids.
Pick your preferred Christmas, then decorate accordingly.
White lights, lots of multicoloured decorations. Artificial tree though Husband is allergic (or so he says, I have no proof)
tree – definitely real. there’s no other way. for me the smell alone brings on the excitement and nostalgia of the holidays. always had a freshly cut one as a kid and bought a real live one a few years ago to bring in during the holidays – there’s no mess and it looks nice on the patio the remaining 51 weeks of the year.
lights – multicolour when i’m putting up my mish-mash of ornaments (grandma bought each kid a new ornament every year). white when i’m going for a more mature, themed approach.
When I was growing up, my parents tree always had nothing but the large “night-light bulb” style Christmas tree lights with metal clips to hold them onto the tree and every single light was BLUE. Which is why I only have multi-colored lights on my fake Christmas tree. Fake, because our 3 cats love to drink tree-water and chew on the ends of the branches so the poor tree would be dead in less than a week.
Also, fake because one year we took our tree back to where we cut it for recycling and they put the darn thing thru the chipper right in front of us! Very tramatic.
I’m planning on putting up a tree in my apartment for the first time in nearly a decade. I hadn’t bothered since because I wasn’t in my apartment all that much and I go up to my mom’s for Christmas anyways, but since I’m working from home now I figure I should make things festive.
Whether it’s a real or fake tree may depend on the price and laziness. I can get a live tree from 3 blocks away. Fake trees often look ugly, too, so I might have to pay a lot for something decent. I’m not too worried, though.
I’m a real tree person myself. We always had multicoloured lights, but I prefer just plain white. Of course, I can’t get a real tree here in Korea. I haven’t quite decided whether to buy a tree this year. The dollar store is selling apartment sized trees very cheaply – it’d be less than $10 for a tree and all the decorations. But hmm… should I go for the 10-inch tall green tree, and decorate it myself, or buy the pink tin foil tree with white lights and silver decorations built in? Decisions, decisions!
Real tree all the way, although this year due to necessity, we are getting a fake one.
Multicolored lights for sure, especially if they blink..the cheesier the better I say!
Multicolour! Real is better, but we have a little fake one that an old roommate bought.
They usually sell trees from the grounds of the elementary school that’s on the northeast corner of 25th and Oak. I think it’s Emily Carr School. Don’t know the name of the company that sells the trees but they are there without fail every year. Might be worth calling the school to inquire as to when those trees will be on site for sale.
back in the old days when trees were about $3-4 we always had a real one. once i moved south to TX and had my own place i just got a fake. when i was young it was the multi-colored lights.
but now i prefer white. i still have a fake tree but all my ornaments are hand made!
I have 2 fake trees from last year. The thing about not owning your own place is, the only real ‘Christmas tree smell’ you can have comes from a Lysol can.
I say multicolour lights! They have a much warmer feel to them. White is used for serious style trees, so if you have a mini fake one for the bedroom or something, maybe use the white lights there.