Going real at Christmas may help the environment

When it Comes to Christmas Trees, Faking it Isn’t Better

By Lauren M. Whaley, 12-06-06

	The author and her roommate haul their felled Christmas tree from the Bridger-Teton National Forest. Photo by David Gonzales.

Faking it may carry you through some situations, but when it comes to Christmas tree selection, err on the real side.

Fake trees may seem more convenient. They don’t shed their needles, you spend less time fighting over which tree to pick, they last for years and most conveniently, they fold up in a matter of minutes.

But, the conditions under which they’re made and the materials themselves should give you pause, says the National Christmas Tree Association.

About 85 percent of fake trees are imported from abroad, they say, from factories where workers sit for hours melting chips into moldable plastics.

The company who invented the fake tree was originally a toilet bowl manufacturer. Whether the ever-expanding butts of the world inspired the big, plastic green brush remains unknown. But, either way, the company stumbled onto something huge, which used more fossil fuels to make than the small bowl cleaners, but probably sold more in Superstores in December than the white-handled scrubbers did all year.

While cutting down a tree kills a living thing, most plastic trees end up in landfills, taking up space and releasing toxic chemicals into the air over the many, many, many years it takes to break down. Live trees are recycled in most communities or dumped back in the woods to decompose.

Last week, my roommate Meg and I decided to get our own real Christmas tree, to inspire holiday cheer in those locals who think only of skiing and not of eggnog, cranberries and sugarplum fairies.

We picked Phillips Canyon on Teton Pass as our destination and sang “Deck the Halls,” “Away in the Manger” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” all the way up.

We had bought our Christmas tree permit from the Bridger-Teton National Forest for $5, looked at the maps that dictated our destination and brought a saw, rope and even a sled for hauling the tree out of the woods.

Once in the woods, we started inspecting the Charlie Brown Christmas trees, bare and spotty, along the trail. Seeing the trees in the forest, glistening with snow, we started feeling guilty about actually cutting one down.

Would buying it from the gas station be a better moral decision? Or maybe we should simply purchase a potted plant to decorate. Ben Roth’s Y.A.R.D. Art students sold lit metal trees at the Christmas Bazaar Saturday, perhaps we should have bought one of those.

Photographer and filmmaker David Gonzales suggested tacking lights to the wall in the shape of a tree. He also suggested not singing Christmas songs until Dec. 24 and ceasing the singing at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 25.

Instead, we continued traipsing through the thigh-deep powder toward Ski Lake, singing in between pants.

When Meg spotted the perfect, albeit scrawny tree, we knew we’d join the 35 million Americans who display real, live Christmas trees every year. We imagined the nine-foot tree that stood in front of us, trunk to trunk with its neighbor, standing alone in our house, covered with ornaments and tinsel, lights and orbs. This one was ours.

When we started sawing, we thanked the tree, told its neighbor that he, now, could grow to his full potential at last, and yelled “timberrrr.” Jackson Hole News&Guide editor Angus Thuermer, said sometimes forest officials will recommend choosing a “doomed” tree, like one growing stiflingly close to its neighbor.

The national forest makes Christmas tree cutting easy with its cheap permits and friendly staff that explain which places on the map are viable tree cutting areas. The best places, according to the official that helped us, are Phillips Canyon, the area south of Red Top Meadows and the Shadow Mountain area. Cutting is prohibited in campgrounds, summer home sites, ski areas, Cache Creek Canyon, Snake River Canyon, designated Wilderness Study Areas and elk feeding grounds. Any exceptions to the closed areas must be written on the permit and initialed by a forest officer.

Those equipped with a saw and the desire to go get it themselves should visit the Jackson Hole and Greater Yellowstone Visitor Center before Christmas. While no one seems to know the precise origin of combining what many see as a pagan tradition with a Christian one, some say the first Christmas tree appeared in the 1500s in Latvia.

In 2005, Americans alone bought 32.8 million trees, despite the Christmas Controversy, which some have dubbed the “war on Christmas.” While stores battle it out - Wal-Mart officially endorsing “Christmas” while Best Buy continues to market “the holidays” – people will continue to either chop or buy trees.

While no one knows the precise moment the pagan tree merged with the Christian holiday, people do report that Christmas trees have been sold commercially in this country since the 1850s. Now, 21,000 people make their living as Christmas tree growers.

Meg and I hauled the tree back down the trail, across the road and to the car. We spent about 15 minutes figuring out how to tie it to the roof before heading home, blasting Christmas music and singing all the way back.

The tree now stands perfectly in the living room corner by the window, drinking about a quart of water a day and facing a fate unknown to most wild trees. It’s decorated with homemade ornaments, white lights and an assortment of popcorn and cranberry strings.

Hopefully, its former neighbor is growing tall. Hopefully no one will come along and saw him down, too. It’s his turn to shine.

But, perhaps that would be better than faking it.

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