To Tree Or Not To Tree This Year? The Benefits and Dangers of Real Vs Fake Artificial Christmas Trees

Hello everyone! Happy Holiday! It is very close to Christmas 🎅 now, so some of you may be considering running out to get a Christmas tree 🎄 if you do not have one already. Christmas trees are one of the highlights of Christmas time ⛄. They are special, just like the holiday they are named after. 

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These days, not everyone wants the same kind of Christmas tree. Some people prefer artificial trees over real ones. Is one better than the other? Well, you can decide for yourself which is best for you based on the benefits and downsides to both, which I will share with you today!

We kill these trees for our own selfish interests every year, and with every tree that gets cut down, an animal’s natural habitat is taken away since animals and insects live inside of these trees; they also lay their eggs inside of them, so this leads to our next problem: eggs  that were waiting for spring to hatch think it’s spring when you bring them inside.

When you cut down a tree and take it home, you are taking in everything that lives inside of that tree into your pristine home. Every spider, lice, tick, flea, fly, etc. Every creepy-crawly thing that you can imagine has placed it’s eggs  inside of that tree. Once the tree gets out of the cold and into your warm home, the bugs that were hibernating wake up, enter your home and start reproducing.

“Up to 25,000 bugs are living in a single Christmas tree, according to Safer Brands. Since tree bugs go dormant during the cold months, you probably won’t notice them at first…Once the tree is inside your home, however, the warm temperature will wake them up, causing them to move” (Garrity, A. (2019). “Thousands of Christmas Tree Bugs May Be Living In Your Real Tree — Here’s How to Get Rid of Them”, Goodhousekeeping.com).

Christmas trees increase the number of bugs and spiders in your house tremendously, so Christmas time is when people tend to get a lot of bug bites and rashes. This is something to be careful about, especially if you have children.

Fake trees have a lot of obvious benefits. The first is that they are bug-free (Who does not love this 😊!). The second is that you can get a small or a large tree if you are conscientious about your ecological footprint. Furthermore, you can reuse this tree again and again every year so you save a lot of money on it and are less wasteful. 

The third benefit to a fake artificial Christmas tree is that you are not taking from an animal’s natural habitat. You are also not killing a living tree that took 30-40 years to grow. 

Lastly, the final benefit is that there is a lot less mess to clean up with an artificial tree since you do not have to worry about cleaning up the pines and bark that fall off of the tree as it dries out and dies.

Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

Personally, I feel that artificial trees are best. You create much less waste over the years with them. They are cleaner for the home and safer for children since bugs are not brought in with them that could bite children. You are also not harming a living thing and there is no mess.

If you do get an artificial Christmas tree, you should not get a pre-lit one because of recalls. So, it is safer to decorate the tree yourself with lights that you got on your own. You could even avoid lights altogether and just decorate your Christmas tree with other ornaments. 

 “Pre-lit artificial trees have been recalled before, so make sure you’re tree hasn’t been recalled before using it. Even if not recalled, pre-lit artificial trees can pose electrical shock hazards and fire risks from exposed wiring, wiring that is too short, or cords that aren’t plugged in completely” ((2021, December 5). “Live Versus Artificial Christmas Trees: Here’s What You Should Know to Lower Your Fire Risk”, North Carolina Consumers Council).