# When was the last year you had a real tree?



## debodun (Dec 13, 2020)

I don't think we had a real tree after my parents bought the house I am living in in 1975. I think the late 1960s was the last I can remember.


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## old medic (Dec 14, 2020)

ALWAYS....We have had no tree the last 3 years due to no room


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## Ken N Tx (Dec 14, 2020)

1991....


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## MickaC (Dec 14, 2020)

When i was a child, at home.


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## Pinky (Dec 14, 2020)

In the 80's, we used to get ours from a tree farm.


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## Gemma (Dec 14, 2020)

2007


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## Wren (Dec 14, 2020)

1975, and swore never again, still finding pine needles from it in 1985 !!


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## jujube (Dec 14, 2020)

At least 30 years.


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## fmdog44 (Dec 14, 2020)

Real trees are the only trees worth having. Screw artificial anything including Santa Clause.


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## Don M. (Dec 14, 2020)

Probably 30 years ago.  They smelled good, but were a bit messy, with the small pine needles always falling off onto the carpet.  I bought a nice artificial tree, and we used it for several years.  Over the past 10 years, or so, we don't even bother putting it up, because we now have Christmas at one of the daughters or granddaughters houses.


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## Aunt Marg (Dec 14, 2020)

It's been many years...

My guess is, sometime in and around the mid 90's.


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## asp3 (Dec 14, 2020)

I forget the exact year but I think it was sometime in the 90's.  I remember purchasing our first artificial tree when the kids were somewhere between 6 and 10.


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## debodun (Dec 14, 2020)

It makes me sad to see all the trees that weren't sold sitting out in the lots the week after Christmas.

The trash services around here won't take the used trees. I see a lot sitting in snowbanks after Christmas. My dad would cut one branch off at a time and put it in the trash. Eventually it would be gone.


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## Giantsfan1954 (Dec 14, 2020)

Early 90s. We did Christmas at the place we just bought upstate which would become our home and I wanted a real tree, we always had artificial.
My kids found fault with everything about it,crooked,messy, smelly(?)
Those needles hung around for a very long time afterwards, been artificial since!


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## Jules (Dec 14, 2020)

When we moved here 15 years ago.  Not enough room.

I was looking at the grocery stores at the small potted trees designed for your table top.  Didn’t give in.


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## StarSong (Dec 14, 2020)

About three years ago.  We eventually gave up trying to train our male dog to leave it alone.  He couldn't make the distinction between ok-to-pee-on trees and not-ok-to-pee-on trees.  

I love a real tree! My children all have them.


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## debodun (Dec 14, 2020)

The people that lived across the street from me where I grew up had a real tree. They set it up on Christmas eve and by Christmas afternoon it was out on the curb. That mom was a neat freak and she didn't want "that filthy thing" in the house any longer than for her kids to open their presents.

The Christmas tree is a German tradition, allegedly started by Martin Luther. Italian and Polish people have a creche as the holiday centerpiece.


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## AnnieA (Dec 14, 2020)

Late 90s.  The preservatives sprayed on it triggered my asthma so I donated it to work.


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## AnnieA (Dec 14, 2020)

The exact to the year dates for some reason strike me funny!  How do y'all remember?


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## Judycat (Dec 14, 2020)

First year I was married 1981.  We went out in three feet of snow to get a tree. We lived in a trailer. Very unsafe. Had a cat that crunched some of the lights with tinsel hanging down. Could have died in a fire. Damn cat.


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## Tommy (Dec 15, 2020)

We've never had an artificial tree.  While the kids were still at home, the expedition to cut a tree was an annual ritual, except ...

During our first year living in Alaska we were told not to cut a tree locally - "They're frozen and will drop their needles very quickly"  (For some thoroughly inexplicable reason we _actually believed that_!?! )    So we bought an overpriced tree imported from Washington state at a commercial lot in town and naturally within a week it was shedding needles like crazy.  The following year we simply walked into the woods and cut the perfect tree.  When we took it down three weeks later, it still had all of its needles and had new growth at the end of each branch!

Initially our "used" trees would be put on the curb where the town would pick them up, put them through a chipper, and make the chips available to whoever wanted them.  In later years, they were placed at the edge of our yard to provide shelter for wildlife.  The following summer they would become part of one of our backyard campfires.

Since the kids have grown and moved away, we've taken to "Charlie Brown" trees . . . sparse three foot white pines decorated with small glass ornaments that sit on a countertop or coffee table.  Our woods are full of them.  No muss, no fuss, and they're easy to dispose of.


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## Gary O' (Dec 15, 2020)

When was the last year you had a real tree?​
Well, gotta say, the last five years we had quite a few.....and they were pretty real



This year, in town, we got an ornament from my Wyoming bud


Immediately hung it on the 'tree'


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## Ceege (Dec 15, 2020)

It's been over 40 years since we had a real tree and about 10 years since we stopped putting a tree up.  Plenty of Christmas decorations, though.


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## Aunt Bea (Dec 15, 2020)

84 or 85 



That year I was working a tremendous amount of overtime and did not take the tree down until St. Patrick's day weekend.  I remember asking a young man down the hall to help me with it.  I went to the kitchen to get a trash bag and broom when I came back to the living room the window in my third-floor apartment was open and the tree was gone! 

These days Christmas spends most of the year in a small cardboard box on a shelf in the closet.  I have a tiny ceramic tree from the 70s, a nativity scene, and a few tabletop decorations that I put out.

My city has special collection days to pick live undecorated trees off of the curb.  The trees are shredded and composted with other yard waste.  The mulch is made available to city residents free of charge in the spring each year.


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## Autumn72 (Dec 16, 2020)

This is been the case for me. Last was in Kansas, Overland Park.
I have this urge to have a small skinny tree or wire 5 foot one just for ornaments.
Havent yet due to by the time it arrived xmas would be over and no one to share it with....this happens the past 3 years.
A desire to celebrate something...


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## Ceege (Dec 17, 2020)

I got a big wreath and put lights and our favorite decorations on it.  It hangs on the wall and doesn't take up any room.


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## peramangkelder (Dec 17, 2020)

I am unable to tolerate the dust and insects on real pine trees so never had one


We have an LED Infinity Christmas Tree which sits on our coffee table now
Looks real pretty when it's dark out


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## Ken N Tx (Dec 18, 2020)




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## Ceege (Dec 19, 2020)

Ken N Tx said:


> View attachment 140202


I see you spared no expense.


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## moviequeen1 (Dec 19, 2020)

when I still lived at home with my parents in the late 70's


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