[sabrina]

This afternoon due to being fed up I decided to put up our Christmas tree. We have had it for years so not a real one due to worrying about pine needles and the dogs paws. Unboxing all the ornaments is like reading a book. Some were bought when my grandchildren were born. An ice skate I bought the year Tyler and her team became Scottish champions. A red heart is for a dear friend who died far too young from cancer. Others are pets who past away and so missed. This year I vought a rainbow to hang on the tree for all the lost loved ones taken by Covid who will be so missed at Christmas time. Every one tells a story.

[doganjo]

Your carbon footprint is far better with an artificial tree if you use it for at least 5 years Well done!  Sounds great.  I threw out a lot of stuff each time I moved - regretting it now 

[arobwk]

Your carbon footprint is far better with an artificial tree if you use it for at least 5 years Well done!  Sounds great.  I threw out a lot of stuff each time I moved - regretting it now 

Evidence @doganjo please !

[Fleecewife]

I gave up real christmas trees years ago.  Nothing to do with carbon footprint, it's just a total waste of a living thing.  I found I couldn't bear to see all the dumped no-longer-loved brown trees put out for the bin in the New Year     Silly old woman.  I did try bringing in a very small potted tree then planting it out afterwards but there's a limit to how many christmas trees you can plant around the place.  I've had my artificial tree for years, but this year I think I shall make my own tree from trimmings from holly, pine, fir and ivy branches - maybe not quite a tree, but a representation anyway.
When my Dad remarried after my mother died, his new wife made a point of chucking out everything that was Mum's, including all the decorations (which had actually come down from my dad's family)  She was ruthless!!  So we no longer have the fairy, or the paper chains and fold-out paper balls and bells, or the brass angels which rotated from the heat of the candle under them.  We actually don't celebrate Christmas itself, just the Solstice, but we like decorations.


I love your idea @sabrina of keeping your memories alive in each special decoration

[doganjo]

Your carbon footprint is far better with an artificial tree if you use it for at least 5 years Well done!  Sounds great.  I threw out a lot of stuff each time I moved - regretting it now 

Evidence @doganjo please !

It was on the Morning Live Programme(I think) yesterday - a survey was done

[doganjo]

I liked the idea on that programme of buying your own tree in a pot (Properly grown, not dragged out of the  ground and stuffed in a pot), then returned to the grower after Christmas, and given back to you next year and subsequent years - for a sort of rental fee. 

So your own tree just grew in it's own pot until it was too big then the grower transplanted it properly into a bigger one

[Rupert the bear]

I gave up real christmas trees years ago.  Nothing to do with carbon footprint, it's just a total waste of a living thing. 

Totally agree, upset at the loss of so many trees in the storm.

[arobwk]

The trouble with driving while listening to the radio is that one only recalls the gist of a radio programme if one is, as one should, paying closer attention to the road and traffic.  However, a radio interview with a retired forester made the case for cropping trees for timber compared to permanent forests as regards carbon sequestering.  (I will get to my Xmas tree point in due course).  In other words;  grow/capture carbon, fell, process into timber and lock that carbon up in the construction of houses etc etc for many, many years.

 
So I’m going to offer two three thoughts re cut real Xmas trees: 
a) they are no different to cut flowers actually and
b) they are increasingly re-cycled into mulches, which release their carbon back into the environment very slowly, and
c) they are not adding to the World's plastic-particles time-bomb !!!!!

The growing and recycling of real Xmas trees is not as good as the growing/processing of timber forests wrt to the carbon cycle, but heh !
 
Enjoy your metal-reinforced plastic trees if you really must, but I will not be following suit.

[Anke]

Well our Xmas tree has for the last 15 years or so come from a local community wood which then uses the profit from selling the trees (you go round yourself, cut one you like and pay by the foot on the way out), which are in an ex commercial plantation btw to replant native trees and do community things in their wood. The tree is in our house until after Xmas, then any remaining needles, bark etc is devoured by our sheep (as tree not sprayed obv) and then the dry remains are used as kindling in our stove.... so I am feeling smug enough about our Xmas tree carbon footprint....