the great debate..

 I went to lunch with a friend today at a nice little restaurant called the Bluebird.  It has evidently been around for a long time, but I had never been there before.  I recommend it.  During our lunch, my friend, who will be hosting his family for Christmas this year, said that after lunch he would be shopping for his Christmas tree, only the real thing will do for him.  I told him my artificial tree was already up and that we were not allowed to have real trees in my apartment complex because of the  potential fire hazard. He agreed that that was a possibility, and also admitted that he was expecting sticker shock, and anticipated only being able to afford a tree so small that he would need to lean down to put the angel on top.  I have not yet heard what size tree he decided to buy but heard an interesting discussion on the evening news about the ecological virtues of real versus artificial trees.  The person being interviewed, a Christmas tree farmer, contended that natural trees are much better because all parts of them can be recycled or naturally disposed of and they are easily replenished, while an artificial tree would need to be kept for at least seven or eight years to have an equally small impact on our environment.  Well, I feel better now.  Since my artificial tree is 40 years old, I'm pretty sure I'm doing ok, especially since I'm not planning to toss it for some time to come.  In case you're wondering, I come by my comfort with artificial trees quite naturally.  My father had a great fear of Christmas trees catching fire.  I think that when he was a small child he actually saw this happen.  That was back in the days of real candles on the trees.  He was ecstatic when the aluminum trees with revolving light wheels came out.  We had one for several years.  Later we had green artificial trees with bubble lights, but as long as I can remember, artificial.  Lucky for me, when I married, my husband was perfectly ok with an artificial tree, and, while they got progressively larger, we always had artificial trees.  I guess that's a legitimate family tradition.