Real or Fake? The Great Christmas Tree Debate!

One of the biggest items around Christmas, is of course the Christmas tree, but which type do you buy in?

Real tree or Fake tree?

Personally speaking I've had both in my lifetime, however, only had a real Christmas tree just the once, as it was a pain in the arse, leaving pines everywhere, you know the type, the ones you end up standing on, and you end up in excruciating pain from!

The real tree was also a pain in the backside as far as getting rid of it was, it was when I lived at my mum's and she had no patio door at this stage, so we had to pass it through the middle window which in a set of three, wasn't exactly huge, and you can imagine the state of the place with all the pines everywhere all over the floor, wall, and windown legde, oh and not forgetting the garden outside, it suddenly looked like it had snowed green!!

The tree we had, you couldn't even hang a decoration without a sound of falling pines through the tree, it was a game of reverse Kerplunk trying to put the decs on without any pines coming off!!!

So, what about fake trees, well for 35 years of my life, we've had a fake tree, it's great, only costs about a tenner, folds in and out of a box, and away to the loft it goes to be stored for 12 months without the minimum of fuss, but then you start to think are you missing out with just having a "fake" tree, and not the real thing.

The plus point is of course, that when it topples over on to you just when you are underneath trying to switch the socket on for the lights, the thing falls down on you, but if you had a real one, it would be the equivalent of visiting a psychotic Acupuncturist (is that what they are called?) and having 5000 pines stabbed in your head, back, and probably arse - not that I'm saying I tend to do the tree decorating in the buff of course, erm, you know what I mean!!

So, the argument does tend to side on the "fake" side, but what do you prefer?

94 days to Christmas!

Another day chalked off the Christmas Countdown, and it won't be long before we are into the eighties, it'll fly round pretty quickly, I can guarantee it!

The topic today is decorations, and when should you put your Christmas tree up?

Now we all know that the pubs & restaurants tend to get ahead of the game, and start sprouting their trees up in the middle of September, and shops tend to do the same, just to get you thinking about buying presents from their shop, but when should we put our decorations at home?

There is an age old story and tradition that your Christmas tree should go up on Christmas Eve, and should come down on the 5th January - well I'm sorry but tradition goes out of the window quicker than a present being unwrapped from underneath it, as we tend to get in the loft / attic, whatever you want to call it, and get the boxes down, blow the dust off the tops, and open them up to reveal those classics that you put away just less than 11 months ago!

We tend to put up our decorations on either the first weekend of December, or if we're feeling really up for it, the 1st December, if it falls on a weekend!

I have been reading around and a few people in the US tend to put their up after Thanksgiving, so is that before you hit December, or just after?

Either way, it's always good fun putting them up, and getting the Christmas CD on is a must, that gets you totally in the mood to get going and you feel that "Santa Claus is coming to town" - oops sorry got into it a little there, but you know what I mean!

So, when do you get your baubles out then?