Go fake or grab a pot and save the 120 million Christmas trees chopped down every year

The traditional family trip to Christmas Tree Farms (frequently shown in holiday films) is entirely romanticised. What Christmas rom coms fail to show, is the reality of getting a real tree: the struggle of squeezing it into a car, clearing up the unprecedented amount of pine needles and alongside all that, bending a few branches in the process.

Artificial trees have always been the easier and the better option. No watering required, no mess, and more importantly, no insects. In contrast, fake trees simply need to be taken down from the loft and quickly re-assembled.

Having a fake Christmas tree is also particularly important if you have pets (or asthma) because, unlike real trees, they do not have over 50 different moulds on them, nor are they harmful to your pet dogs and cats.

With more symmetry to them, fake Christmas trees also better for the perfectionists, who care about the ‘aesthetics’. They don’t have the wonky branches, large gaps, or imperfect shapes that many real ones have. And of course, the wide variation of artificial trees means that they can be customized to your preference, whether it’s shape, height, colour or even with fake snow on the branches.

But what’s more important to me than convenience or aesthetics is the fact that I’m not chopping down a living tree. The one thing I cannot seem to justify is excessively chopping down trees just for decoration, especially when it’s for only a few weeks. Some conifer species are endangered by deforestation, and according to members of The Global Trees Campaign, there are more than 200 species of conifers around the world that are at risk of extinction. This wasteful buying and disposing of Christmas trees annually is not eco-friendly or even cost effective.

Although artificial trees appear to be expensive, they end up being much cheaper than real ones, particularly due to price inflation over the years.

I’m not saying that artificial trees are perfect, as they do often have a hefty carbon footprint, and cannot be recycled, but at least they’re reusable. They often have a very long lifetime and can easily be stored until the next festive season comes round.

Our household Christmas tree for example, is 24 years old, and even if people want a change, there are opportunities to purchase second hand Christmas trees through freecycle or even Facebook marketplace. But real Christmas trees can easily end up in landfill, if they are not effectively chopped, burnt or thrown in a compost heap.

So my advice is, before buying yet another real Christmas tree, either purchase a potted one that can be replanted, or even better, get an artificial one, to reduce the 120 million Christmas trees that are cut down each year across the globe.