It’s that special time of year filled with wonder and whimsy when we put trees in our homes and transform our apartments into magical forests decorated with plastic tinsel and coloured glass orbs. But your tree. Your tree! Is it real or fake?
There are bigger issues in the world. But if you ask me, unless you’re a slight scrooge or suffer from severe seasonal allergies, you must go with the real thing. Douglas Fir, Blue Spruce, Scotch Pine — pick your pleasure. The smell is part of the fun, and car air fresheners or kitchen candles just don’t give the same seasonal effect.
Yes, fake trees are convenient. There’s no clean up, and you don’t have to pay for a new one every year. But, c’mon. As we close in on Christmas, you feel an inevitable cosmic tug from tannenbaum begging you to make it the centrepiece of your home for the next couple of weeks. So which is it? Needles, sap and the scent of a forest, or PVC plastic, aluminium and a box that lives in the garage for 11 months of the year?