Unlike a number of people we know, we do not put Christmas decorations up until December; the exact date fluctuates depending on several factors. We do have the cute tabletop Cajun Christmas tree that I’ve posted about before that has survived an amazing number of moves. Last year we actually didn’t put a regular tree up because of the timing of the Australia trip. What that meant was we essentially delayed our decision about do we buy another artificial tree or do we go with a live tree this year?

Notwithstanding the year we were given a live tree that was so large, a section had to be cut off, we generally stick with the 6-7 foot height and we do green rather than frosted or silver. I think those are fine for a situation where you have multiple trees, but I do hold to a certain amount of tradition for our personal use. We have a place to store the tree, so that isn’t an issue. Cleaning up fallen needles has never bothered me – I mean unless you have an unhealthy specimen, you aren’t going to lose that many needles at any one time. The advantage of a live one is that when you’re ready to take it down, you do, and out it goes for bulk pick-up. There’s no repacking it into a box. On the other hand, getting the box off the shelf can be a lot quicker than going to the “lot” to find the right tree, buy it, then haul it home. Yes, you have to do that the first time with an artificial, but then it’s good for several years. Okay, readers – does anyone have strong feelings on this topic?