Christmas Tree Rentals

The environmental greeners are at it again. They are renting Christmas trees this again year in many U.S. cities to help "save the environment" again. They seem to save the environment allot, but I wish they would first try to save their own sanity and come to some sense of reason. I have doubts they could even accomplish that.First...about the claim that using fake trees is more environmentally sound...Artificial trees are manufactured using a polyvinyl chloride (or PVC), which is a petroleum derived plastic. The raw material for fake Christmas trees is both non-renewable and polluting. The artificial tree results in the unhealthy emission of a number of carcinogens, such as dioxin, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride. So don't tell me you are a planet saver when you use a fake tree!

Renting out live Xmas trees, picking them up after the holiday and replanting is supposed to stop the waste in cutting down the trees (even though the trees are farmed and replaced with new seedlings every year, resulting in no net loss of trees). The good thing about renting a live Xmas tree is that the cost is that on average only about 20% higher than buying a cut tree that must be discarded after Xmas. Also, there is no mess with needles when using alive tree. I once had a live Christmas tree, a smaller one that I bought, and I planted it in my backyard after Christmas. But the heat and humidity of New Orleans eventually killed it.

Those artificial trees are not my style. I never had one and plan to never ever have a fake tree. Christmas trees are the most important Christmas decorations in the home, so why put an aluminum tree there? And shopping for a real tree each year is fun. I hate the idea of not having that job at Christmas. I even like hauling it home and setting the real tree in the Xmas stand. It is always hard to get the tree straight and most often there are imperfections. But there is a sense of personal investment a real tree gives that is absent with artificial ones. And no smells come from a fake tree! What better than the fresh smell of a real tree or even the decaying one if it eventually 'goes bad' before New Years Day.

So I like the real tree and the growing use of live potted trees that can be rented or bought and replanted. Don't tell me artificial trees are better. The next thing you'd probably say is that Santa is a fake too. Bah Humbug to that!