Artificial Christmas Trees

Christmas Trees a History:

Green trees have been used in the dead of winter to show that life always continues, even when the world is white with snow and most plants are in a state of hibernation. They were used at winter solstice festivals, which were the end of the long nights and marked the beginning of long days. When the church picked December 25 as the day to celebrate the birth of Christ, it allowed people to continue having their mid-winter celebrations but is was for a new reason, the birth of Christ. So many of the same decorations and ideas that had been used for the old pagan festivals were now used for this new Christian celebration. It was Saint Boniface in trying to convert the pagan Germanic tribes to Christianity that took a fir tree and gave it new meaning to the people by saying. “This humble tree’s wood is used to build your homes, let Christ be at the center of your households. Its leaves remain evergreen in the darkest days, let Christ be your constant light. Its boughs reach out to embrace and its top points to heaven, let Christ be your Comfort and Guide”. As Christianity spread, so too has the Christmas tree spread around the world, people from all walks of life are able to look at it and think of Christ and his gifts to all of us.

Artificial Christmas Trees:

Pre modern times trees were of course real, but people have been looking for ways to mimic nature without chopping down all of her trees. Today most artificial trees are made from Polyvinyl chloride which is commonly abbreviated as PVC and or Polyethylene abbreviated as PE, these are commonly referred to as plastic trees. Polyethylene is more expensive than PVC to manufacture so the best trees today use a combination of both. Manufactures of artificial Christmas trees like to use names of real trees when trying to describe their tree, but since most manufactures do not want to use the same name that a competitor is using they will use a different name for the same tree. For the customer this also means they cannot look at a Douglas Fir from one company and try to compare it to another Douglas Fir of another company. One may be more expensive than the other but are they both PVC or is one PVC and the other a combination PVC and PE? Other items to consider are tip count, lights or no lights, cost and ease of set up and take down. The hook in branch method is where you have to assemble the whole tree by hooking the branches onto the center post, this method also can’t be prelit and involves the most work. Many people today prefer the hinged system, where the branches are already connected to a center post and depending on the size of your tree center posts may need to be put together. Also these can come with lights already on them just waiting to be plugged in to brighten your Christmas tree.

Environmental Issues:

Many people today prefer an artificial tree which will last well over ten years to cutting down a real oxygen producing tree every year. While some fear that artificial trees are bad for the environment because in the past they have only ended up in landfills. But today there are ways of breaking down the PVC and PE and companies are always working on better and more cost effective ways of doing this to recycle these products.