i just read this very thought provoking article about the tradition of xmas trees.
it had some very interesting things to say, and just firmed up my belief in going artificial vs live xmas tree.
i grew up in a home with an artificial tree. so i don’t have childhood memories linked to the smell of the tree. i admit that. but it has never made any sense to me to kill something just to decorate your house for a single season.
sure, i am sure there’s tons of things in my house that have been made by killing things…trees in particular because i have a lot of wood furniture…but these don’t last just one short season and get thrown away.
the paper i use, i recycle…we actually reuse a lot of it first, and then recycle. and i try to buy recycled when i can as well.
anyway, i’m sure all sorts of arguments could be made against all sorts of things i buy, but the simple fact remains that i have a great adoration for trees. and i really feel it is wrong to kill one just to decorate your house for a few weeks. it just feels really wrong to me.
after living and working at scicon outdoor school, i was very strongly environmental and used to say that i felt almost like i could hear the dying trees of the xmas tree lots screaming in pain as they slooooooowly died…it was a very sad time for me. of course the extreme environmentalist learned to adapt to city life again and i’m back to a more tolerable level and i just see them as sad, but not so excrutiating now…but i remember that feeling of intense pain over the tree lots. and just not getting why its so important to so many people.
i do find it of particular interest in that article linked above that this tradition is really so very young and very localized to just the US, canada and parts of europe. the rest of the world probably think we’re weird, LOL!
that said, i do appreciate that everyone gets to make their own choices and i admit that i have no clue what it is to have a childhood memory of live trees. i’m actually quite glad of that, as i think it would probably cause a conflict in me.
so, yep, we have an artificial tree…and that probably won’t ever change, even though i’m reading some not-so-great things about artificial trees (although i definitely disagree on the life span of the artificial tree…we had ours for decades growing up, and my parents donated it to their church after they wanted to upgrade to a better artificial tree, and to my knowledge its STILL being used…that’s going on 40 years maybe?)…they still far outweigh the thought of senselessly (by my standards) killing of a live tree. its just something i don’t know i’ll ever feel comfortable with.
to each his own, i guess. *shrug*
Leave a Reply