Get a permit and go cut your own. It will be a Charlie Brown kind of tree, most likely, but such a great time! It's just a fun day. It's also like $5 for a permit as compared to whatever the lots are charging.
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I've picked mine up from Ikea the past couple of years. The trees are pretty decent. Price is $20 but you get a $20 off a $75 purchase coupon in January.
Get a permit and go cut your own. It will be a Charlie Brown kind of tree, most likely, but such a great time! It's just a fun day. It's also like $5 for a permit as compared to whatever the lots are charging.
Agreed that this is the way to go. Super fun too, especially if you have young ones.
We've gone to the Southern Rockies Region the past two years. NW of Ghost Lake, up the Forestry Trunk Road near Waiparous, last year and near Bragg Creek the year before. Both times, we found pretty decent trees.
To me, getting a live tree seems like the a waste of a perfectly good tree that is better left in nature.
Anyone have a counterpoint to this?
I recall seeing a news story or documentary a year or two ago about the main tree farms in Canada that provide Christmas trees. It is the economic livelihood for certain regions in Nova Scotia. They do replant each and every tree and I believe they harvest the trees every six years. Without the Christmas tree industry those people would have no industry in their region.
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Christmas trees are a billion-dollar market, according to the National Christmas Tree Association (yup, a real thing). In 2011, a poll found that people in the U.S. purchased more than 30 million real trees and 9.5 million fake ones. Short of not buying a tree at all (unlikely), evidence is mounting that the best way to minimize environmental impact (and potential health risks) is to purchase a real live tree.
It’s easy to assume fake trees are the more eco-friendly choice, because (let’s face it) cutting down a live tree hardly seems like an act of environmental preservation. But according to the NCTA, artificial trees are made up of plastics that don’t biodegrade (meaning any fake tree that ends up in a landfill will stay there for, well, ever.) In addition, the process of making fake trees is pretty energy-intensive, meaning that a fake tree would have to be used for two decades before it could match the carbon footprint of a farmed tree (that’s the amount of carbon emitted by burning fossil fuels). Though one study did find that artificial trees are a better choice environmentally (on the grounds that they have a smaller transportation footprint than real trees because real-tree purchasers have to drive to pick one up each year), the conclusions have been accused of being misleading.
Not only are fake trees fairly damaging to the environment, but they might also pose a risk to human health. Fake trees may contain metal toxins like lead, the exposure to which may cause damage to the central nervous system, kidneys, and other organs, even in small doses . In short, fake trees generally aren’t a great choice for planetary and human health.
In contrast, spending a little cash-money on a real tree can be good for human health, local communities, and the planet. Real trees contribute to local state economies (Christmas tree farms are in business in all 50 states), and choosing a locally grown tree can actually conserve energy (no transporting a tree over state lines or overseas). Another bonus: Real trees are biodegradable, which means they can be recycled or composted and used to fertilize new generations of trees.
Real trees can also benefit human health. Trees help clean the air while they’re grown (remember all that photosynthesis stuff we learned in grade school?). And one acre of the Christmas staple can produce the daily oxygen requirements for 18 people. Exposure to real greenery can also be pretty therapeutic, as it’s been linked to reduced stress and improvements in overall wellbeing. And if all this isn’t enough reason to buy the authentic version, consider this: Real trees smell waaay better.
To me, getting a live tree seems like the a waste of a perfectly good tree that is better left in nature.
Anyone have a counterpoint to this?
Our trees (at Lowe's) come from Canadian Christmas tree farms and are shipped fresh - ours were only cut about 10 days ago. This is their purpose - they have a Christmas destiny! These trees provide jobs for Canadians. Some box stores, however, have their trees sourced from the States, they are cut in September and then frozen in containers and stored before being shipped great distances - so these are not as environmentally friendly.
Was watching the Shaw channel for some reason and saw this story about the Cochrane Ecological Institue offering up Christmas trees for a donation to assist their animal reserve (both in maintaining their land for grazing, and the funds from the trees to help their programs).
Link to an article if anyone is interested in learning more.
Real Christmas Trees
