RALEIGH, N.C. — If the holidays are a time for peace on Earth and goodwill toward all, someone forgot to tell the Christmas-tree people.
For them, there can be no yule truce: It’s either a natural tree grown at a farm or an artificial model that lasts year after year.
Choose wisely, each side says, because the other option can be downright dangerous, carrying risks for allergies, environmental damage and even lead.
“Misinformation is the biggest competition,” said Rick Dungey, spokesman for the National Christmas Tree Association, which represents growers of natural trees. “People think a lot of weird things about trees. . . . They think they’re allergic to them, or they’re going to burst into flames or they’re a hassle.”
Thomas Harman, the founder and chief executive of Redwood City, Calif.-based Balsam Hill, a manufacturer of artificial trees, agreed there is plenty of misinformation. He blames much of that on the natural-tree group.
“There is a perception among the National Christmas Tree Association that artificial trees are stealing their business,” said Harman, who also is president of the American Christmas Tree Association. “Whether or not that’s really true or Christmas-tree use per capita has declined, they’ve historically put out a bunch of content about artificial trees that isn’t true.”
In the great debate, it’s easy to find strong views.
Katie Dow, a 44-year-old photographer from Raleigh, N.C., doesn’t disguise her disdain for artificial trees like the one her mother would decorate at their home in Bradford, N.H.
“It never looked right,” she said. “It made me nauseous.”
For her first Christmas after she graduated from college, Dow bought a natural tree, and her friends bought ornaments for her. One year, her mother wanted her to put up the artificial tree for a Christmas Eve dinner. Dow refused.
“I literally took the tree I had decorated, put it in the Jeep — decorations and all — and put it in the living room for the party,” Dow said.
Chris O’Donnell was a live-tree person all his life — until he lost his job the day after Thanksgiving 2010 and a friend loaned him an artificial tree.
“I was one of those live-trees-’til-death people,” said O’Donnell, 44, of Frederricksburg, Va.
The loaned artificial tree changed all that.
“Once we had a fake tree in the house, and I didn’t have to clean up needles and I didn’t have to climb under it twice a day to water it, I kind of wondered why I ever bothered with the real ones,” he said.
O’Donnell is now director of sales for a technology company. He recently paid $110 for a 7-foot artificial tree.
“I guess if we miss the pine smell,” he said, “we can buy some candles.”
