eco friendly Christmas

[shootingstar]

We have a minature tabletop artificial Christmas tree about 1 ft. high. I've had it over last 20 yrs. Gets draped with a permanent collection of decorations acquired from bike touring trips, children's homemade decorations and other paraphenalia from several European vacation trips, ,etc.

He comes from a strong family tradition of live trees. Traditional Germans value live evergreen. 'O Tannebaum'...is a German carol. Until she died, his mother liked decorating her home with live evergreen boughs. My partner even remembers real flame candles on evergreen Christmas tree indoors at home as a child here in Canada.

Whereas my lst memory of Christmas ..was a 6 ft. high silver foil Christmas tree for lst 10 yrs. of life. A Christmas tree memory better erased.

[badger]

when we lived in Japan in the early 70's, nobody really celebrated Christmas. And my dad being European he made an effort by digging up this poor little Charlie Brown tree every year and bringing it inside in a pot and putting it back outside when done.

But we didn't care, it magically had presents underneath it on Christmas mornings

[lph]

Friend of mine still uses real candles on her Christmas tree. She says they're a bit of hassle to light (and get hold of, they're special, thin ones) and don't last very long ,but are very very pretty

[shootingstar]

Friend of mine still uses real candles on her Christmas tree. She says they're a bit of hassle to light (and get hold of, they're special, thin ones) and don't last very long ,but are very very pretty

Dearie does remember in his teens, when the family's live Christmas tree with real candles, did catch on fire. His mother loved a decorated Christmas tree so much that every Christmas she had it up until her birthday (early Feb.). By that time, the tree was very dry and unfortunately one year, went up in flames indoors.

Fortunately that was the only damage!

Christmas is the only time for me to enjoy atypical tree mementos: plastic tiny bike, Santa Claus in a rowboat, Venetian glass bauble (from Venice), tiny plastic mug from Munich, child-painted baked decorations from now-adult niece and nephew, corn husk angel from Santa Fe, tiny East Indian doll, etc. I need my family and long-term friend memories...they live far away from me.

[owlice]

Live (balled) Christmas trees are very heavy (because of the root ball), and the root ball may contain mold spores, and if one is allergic to mold, one doesn't breathe and one has a headache throughout the entire holiday and might be snarly and not in the Christmas spirit at all because having a headache and not being able to breathe is not fun.

And then when the tree, which can stay indoors for only a week without damaging the tree, is planted outside and dies, one who couldn't breathe and had an aching head all through the holidays might wonder why she even bothered.

Not that I know anyone whose ever had such experiences or anything....

[badger]

one of my fondest memories of the little bits and bobs that my aunt sent us from Austria is one of those twirly angel things where these metallic angels with little bars going around in circles hitting bells. The angels moved by the heat of the candles underneath them. I'm sure there's a proper name for them that someone here knows!

[badgercat]

Every year after I turned 4 or so, all the way through college, I got to decorate a small (maybe 3-foot) artificial tree that my parents bought before my time. The Little Tree was "my" tree (I'm an only child), and I got to put my little cute and silly ornaments on it while the nice and elegant and family heirloom ornaments went on the Big Tree (my mom was so particular about ornament placement that she would move anything that I put on it anyway ). The Little Tree will be the tree that DBF and I decorate this season in our first home together.

So... I guess the fact that the Little Tree has been in use for the past 30-some years makes it environmentally friendly enough.

[channlluv]

...
Whereas my lst memory of Christmas ..was a 6 ft. high silver foil Christmas tree for lst 10 yrs. of life. A Christmas tree memory better erased.

We had one of those, along with that rotating colored disk thing with the backlight that shone up on the tree turning it blue, red, green, and golden.

Ah, good times, good times.

Roxy

[OakLeaf]

A living tree is nice if you can keep it alive (very difficult) but I don't know how eco friendly it is. The difference in fuel required to excavate and haul the root ball (total weight 100-150 kg), vs. hauling a cut tree (maybe 10 kg) and extracting a stump; the thousands of gallons of (usually potable) water that have to be fed to the sapling as it gets established, vs a much smaller amount of water to farm new seedlings each year...

Just speculating here, but I'd have to think that the main route to an eco friendly holiday season is the ordinary one of reduce and reuse. That all becomes so much more difficult under the commercial pressures of the holidays of course - which is all the more reason to try.

[smilingcat]

A living tree is nice if you can keep it alive (very difficult) but I don't know how eco friendly it is. The difference in fuel required to excavate and haul the root ball (total weight 100-150 kg), vs. hauling a cut tree (maybe 10 kg) and extracting a stump; the thousands of gallons of (usually potable) water that have to be fed to the sapling as it gets established, vs a much smaller amount of water to farm new seedlings each year...

Just speculating here, but I'd have to think that the main route to an eco friendly holiday season is the ordinary one of reduce and reuse. That all becomes so much more difficult under the commercial pressures of the holidays of course - which is all the more reason to try.

Oh didn't think about LCA (life cycle analysis)... I wonder which is better??

I do miss the smell of fresh evergreen. I love the smell of earth, the plants, the trees. Maybe his is why I prefer to have a real tree in my house... (and yes my parents also had a silver christmas tree. blech!!)

With two boy dogs and the cats, anything standing up like a tree is just asking for trouble. sigh...

[five one]

For many years, we have gone to a particular tree farm in the Santa Cruz mountains and cut our own tree. If cut correctly, leaving several lower branches, the tree will regenerate in about five years. After we take the tree down, DH, who is an arborist by trade, runs the tree through a brush chipper where it becomes mulch. The company that picks up our trash has a very good recycling program. Unflocked trees left on the curb are picked up and chipped.


And speaking of pets and Christmas trees...

We have a couple rescue kitties (both adults, not kittens) that we adopted last February, so this will be our first Christmas with them. One is a 15# Maine Coon who is very curious and loves to be up high. He can jump like nobody's business and he's fearless. I have visions of him trashing the tree while we're at work. We've never had an issue with cats we've had in the past. Our house is small and there is only one spot where there's room for a tree. There is no way to close off this part of the house from the cats. Suggestions anyone?

[malkin]

One year, we decided to set up a train set near the tree. We have a collection of very small trains that borders on excessive. (Okay, it is plainly excessive, but at least they are small.) Because the trains are so small, to show them off properly we wanted to set them up running in front of the tree. Because the tree was rather small it was on a table.

Cleverly, we put a board on the table, but sticking out in front so the trains could run around in front of the tree. How wonderful!

So spectacular, in fact, that when the cat jumped up to explore the train platform it catapulted the tree over the train, and the whole mess ended up in a wet pile on the floor.

Not green;
Not recommended.

[lph]

I have visions of him trashing the tree while we're at work. We've never had an issue with cats we've had in the past. Our house is small and there is only one spot where there's room for a tree. There is no way to close off this part of the house from the cats. Suggestions anyone?

tension wire the tree. I'm not kidding! We had several large athletic cats when I was growing up, a rickety tree holder and always a large tree going right up to our high ceiling. We'd attach minimum a short wire to the closest wall, preferably wires to three directions. They looked appropriately festive with garlands on

if it's breaking ornaments you're worried about there's nothing you can do about it. Either hang non-breakable ones, or hang the breakable and most interesting ones up very high. Either way, expect to lose something... a decorated Christmas tree is heaven to any cat left alone

[five one]

tension wire the tree. I'm not kidding! We had several large athletic cats when I was growing up, a rickety tree holder and always a large tree going right up to our high ceiling. We'd attach minimum a short wire to the closest wall, preferably wires to three directions. They looked appropriately festive with garlands on

if it's breaking ornaments you're worried about there's nothing you can do about it. Either hang non-breakable ones, or hang the breakable and most interesting ones up very high. Either way, expect to lose something... a decorated Christmas tree is heaven to any cat left alone

Fortunately we have a nice heavy large tree stand. Although we do plan to wire the tree to the nearest wall, I'm not too concerned with the tree toppling. It's the 15# Maine Coon jumping/climbing into the tree and wreaking havoc. I think we may get it early, put it up, and leave it undecorated for a few days to see what happens. Breakable ornaments with sentimental value will stay in the box this year, particularly because we have hardwood floors. But most of the rest are handmade and unbreakable. I just don't look forward to having to police the living room waiting for the worst to happen. This cat just CANNOT leave things alone.

The only issue we ever had with past cats is pulling away the tree skirt to get to the water trough. I guess we had it easy then.

It should be an interesting few weeks...

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

We have a couple rescue kitties (both adults, not kittens) that we adopted last February, so this will be our first Christmas with them. One is a 15# Maine Coon who is very curious and loves to be up high. He can jump like nobody's business and he's fearless. I have visions of him trashing the tree while we're at work. We've never had an issue with cats we've had in the past. Our house is small and there is only one spot where there's room for a tree. There is no way to close off this part of the house from the cats. Suggestions anyone?

Yep...do like we do, and get a tall cactus and decorate it as your xmas tree.
Our cats will not have anything to do with my cactii!

This picture was taken 2 years ago, the cactus is now about 50% bigger. Every year i have to get a bit more lighting for it, since it keeps growing.