A tree-tise

As the year concludes and the holiday season approaches, people organize themselves into two separate groups.

The feud over which groups’ practices better uphold the Christmas spirit has roared for decades.

I am talking about people who use artificial Christmas trees versus those who stick with real ones.

Ever since artificial trees were invented in the 1930s by a toilet bowl brush company, preferences for either real or fake trees has divided Christmas celebrators in a way not many people really talk about.

Although the division is negligible and not a true threat to the holiday, it’s still undeniable that people who use real trees will often judge or criticize the use of a fake trees and vice versa.

I’ve never really bothered approaching this debate from a cultural standpoint.

Taking a hearty environmental perspective for most of my life led me to believe that using real trees was an evil ritual.

It bothered me to think about how these trees, some of which have been growing for nearly a decade or more, can be chopped down just so they can be used for a week and then tossed out.

Looking back, it’s clear my reasoning foolishly operated solely on emotion.

It turns out, using fake trees is actually more environmentally detrimental.

With agreements from the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club, the Indiana Department of Environmental Resources is recommending that Hoosiers use Indiana grown Christmas trees not only to ease their environmental impact but also to support local commerce.

Artificial trees are made of nonrenewable, petroleum-based materials.

The production and transportation of their different components greatly hinges upon oil.

Fake trees also wreak environmental havoc on the other end of their economic pathway because of their inorganic properties and inability to be recycled.

Real trees are typically grown on farms renewably and closer to home.

Plus, they continue to produce fresh oxygen in peoples’ houses and can be reused, discarded more naturally or even recycled into mulch.

Growing up in a home that has never used a real tree to celebrate Christmas, I personally can’t help but favor fake trees in spite of it all.

Some of the earliest and brightest Christmas memories I have are of assembling the tree with my family, bending the steel branches to my liking and sheltering my favorite toys within them without having to worry about any sticky sap.

If you are an ultra-dedicated green machine, it may feel necessary to quit using Christmas trees altogether, or to at least commit yourself to the use of real ones.

I simply suggest people forget this debate and stick with whatever maximizes their Christmas cheers, even if it means going with a polluting artificial tree.

This is a case in which the extra exploitation of resources is completely worth it.

­— edharo@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Edgar Haro on Twitter @EdHarodude.