When I was growing up we always had a real tree as a Christmas tree, the smell of the pine needles, picking them up from the carpet at the end of the year.When my parents moved to a smaller house they got a fake tree that sat on a table; we missed the smell but not the mess or the disposal at Twelfth Night.
My husband and I have never had a real tree. We have a rather lovely fibre-optic tree that changes colour. It's now sharing its fifteenth Christmas with us.
Growing up we had dozens of ornaments (many that my brother and I had made) which had to go on the tree. It wasn't until the smaller fake trees that my mother got close to her ideal of a colour co-ordinated tree. Our fibre-optic tree doesn't have ornaments hung on it at all, so they have to sit around the room (and not fall off shelves).
I do have a little tree in the hall, and it only has birds on it; with a little set of battery operated lights.
My MiL (Mother-in-Law) has a full sized fake tree in the front room (the room that, if we were Victorians, would be the parlour). This is a beautiful piece of artwork in gold; there are other colours in the ornaments, but it is mostly gold. It is stunning.
We sometimes have a tree at work (if anyone remembers to put it up); we sometimes have one in the building reception (again if anyone remembers to put it up). The one in our office is fake and lives in the basement between years, the one in downstairs reception is real and ends up pathetically in a bin come January.
Real trees, fake trees - it is about the tradition of the ornaments (or not) and the joy of decorating them.
The photos below include our home trees, the office tree, outdoor trees and trees with cat playing in!
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