Fake vs. Real Trees

By Zoe Mixon

As know there are many Christmas traditions. For example there are stockings, presents, and of course the Christmas tree. Some people get fake trees because they take less maintenance and you don’t have to water it, while on the other hand, other people get real trees for the nice pine smell and the original tradition. As you can see both of these trees are great for different reasons, but the big question is which do more people prefer, fake or real?

In my opinion both trees are fun to have but, they both have their ups and downs, for example, fake trees are fun and easy to have because you just decorate it and leave it up until Christmas is over. Also you don’t have to water it or clean up all of the pine needles. On the other hand, real trees smell nice and are part of the original christmas tradition. Here are some pros about fake trees to start off. First, fake trees can actually save you money because you can use them year after year. Also you are helping the environment by not cutting down another tree. Although this makes the fake trees seem great, it really isn’t that great for the environment when the time comes to throw it away. For example the fake trees are made of PVC which is a non-biodegradable plastic. This is not good for when you decide to throw away your Christmas tree when it gets to be old and kind of messy looking. Fake trees also save you water. For example you don’t have to water it which saves us water in this huge drought. Also if someone has an allergy, fake Christmas trees are definitely the way to go.

Now let’s move on to real trees. One pro about real Christmas trees is according to USDA almost 30 million trees are sold each year which are all grown hear in the US. If you think about it someone has to tend to all of the trees and help them grow and stay healthy. So that would be a lot of jobs millions of americans which is great for them and their families. As you already know real trees are biodegradable unlike real trees. As I have mentioned many times before, many people enjoy the smell of the real trees which is great if you are enjoying the holidays with friends or family. Some cons about real Christmas trees is that real Christmas trees can be really expensive. Most trees range from 20$ – 70$ but some can even get up to around 200$ depending on the size of the tree. Also real trees have to be watered constantly and they drop messy pine needles. I hope this helped make your christmas tree decision easier, but that still hasn’t answered the question, which tree do more people prefer?

Turns out more people, out of Mr. Shelton’s class, liked real trees better than fake trees. Some people said that they liked fake trees better because it is less maintenance while other people said, that they liked having a real tree because of it’s smell. Although it seemed like fake trees where the way to go, people still decided to go with the traditional real tree. I hope this helped make your tree decision easier. Whichever tree you end up choosing I hope you enjoy it and have a merry Christmas.