Real or Fake Debate

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

How do you put up a tree? Do you take it out of the box and out it together? Do you go down to your local Home Depot or corner tree lot and put up a real cut tree? Do you go out to a tree farm or the middle of the woods and cut your own?

There are reasons for choosing a real tree and reasons for choosing a fake tree. Here are some of the key points to help you make a decision.

Price

The least expensive option is to cut your own tree on your own land. Obviously, this is only an option for a few families. A cut tree will cost on average around $80 these days. An artificial tree will cost around $300, but this may include the lights.

The Green Factor

This is a tough debate. On the one hand, cutting down a live tree can't be good for the environment. On the other hand, an artificial tree is a bunch of polyvinyl that will one day end up in a landfill, clogging the environment. Trees that are specifically grown for the purpose of becoming Christmas trees aren't making a dent in the environment, right? Well that tree has probably been laced with all sorts of pesticides.

Keeping Up with the Jones

If you wonder which choice is the coolest, or at least the most popular, you can rest assured that here we have an actual answer, at least for the moment. Fake trees are a growing trend and the majority in homes.

American Jobs

China shipped $69 million worth of artificial trees to the U.S. from January through August this year, according to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Cut trees have to come from the US., with most of them being shipped all over the country from California. To be fair, there are American makers of Christmas trees, and if this is a concern, you can certainly purchase a tree from an American maker, such as the Holiday Tree and Trim company in New Jersey.

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog and caring for little ones in the Baby Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here.

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Choosing a Frugal Christmas Tree

Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, online content manager, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania in the middle of the woods but close enough to Target and Home Depot.

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