SubscribeA real or artificial tree?
For the more than 25 years that I’ve been buying a Christmas tree, there’s never been a question about what kind it would be. It had to be real.
First, I really enjoy the tree-shopping ritual. A few times, I even went searching at tree farms for a tree with just the right personality but mostly I took the typical suburban journey to the roadside stands. It became a bigger event beginning with my daughter’s first Christmas, when I bundled her up and convinced my youngest sister to take a gazillion pictures of us as we looked at the trees.
Since then, my sister joined us annually for the merriment and the chores of getting a real tree – tying it on the top of the car, hauling it up stairs, getting it straight in the tree stand and cleaning up the pine needles. But what a reward: a warm and inviting tree and a wonderful pine scent.
This year, I bought a fake tree. 
It was a tough decision. Now that my daughter and I are in North Carolina, we’re living in an apartment for a while. There are more stairs and getting the tree inside would have been a big hassle. And, I reluctantly admit, I just wasn’t up to dealing with all the work involved with a real tree.
So, no tree shopping. Our usual tree-trimming party of three shrank to two. When I took the pre-lit artificial tree out of the box, my daughter eyed it suspiciously and declined to help put it together. She did help put on the ornaments, admiring the ones she’s gotten over the years, but she wasn’t too talkative. I turned up the Christmas music, but I’ll be honest, I wasn’t feeling the spirit either.
“It doesn’t have any smell,” my daughter said after we had finished.
For the past week, I’ve been looking at the tree and its collection of my treasured angel ornaments and my daughter’s favorites. It doesn’t yet inspire or make me smile the way the real trees did. It’s nice, but it lacks personality.
Maybe this new tree will grow on us coming days. Maybe not.
What do you have in your home, a real or artificial tree?
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I am a member of the Sandwich Generation, a Baby Boomer raising a teenage daughter and dealing with the needs of an aging mother. I am a veteran journalist, having worked for more than three decades as a reporter and editor. Mostly recently, I was an editor with the Metro section of The Washington Post.
