Fakes Are Good Too

This year I broke tradition and got myself an artificial Christmas Tree. Growing up, my family always had a fake tree and we hated it (well, my sister and I hated it). Sometime during high school we switched over to real trees. I decided at that time I would always get a real tree at Christmas time. Well, that decision, just like many others in my life has been turned over. This year we got a fake tree. This decision was influenced by many factors, but the most compelling were the potential fire and choking hazards a real tree presented to my 1 year old son who can't keep his hands off of anything (do you know how many times I've had to tell him that the oven is bad?). Also, the fact that real tree prices have climbed every year and we've been paying about $100 a year for a tree we thought was nice enough (not even the best tree, just good enough). Of course this was in NYC and not NJ, but the part of Jersey we moved to isn't really that much cheaper than NYC... in fact, in some ways, it's more expensive. Ah well...
To be honest, I wasn't ready for the amazingly inflated prices of artificial trees, but I guess it'll pay for itself over time. Now all trees come with lights already on them. I really do enjoy the ease of these trees, but I would have been happy to have scored a cheaper tree without lights. Unfortunately the only ones I could fine (I think I found 2) were like the tree from Charlie Brown's Christmas. Decorated, they remind me of an old lady trying to look good on a night out - too old and scrawny for a couple of baubles to fool anyone into thinking they are still pretty.
So... I shelled out the big bucks and got a nice tree with 800 lights and over 2100 branch tips. It looks really nice and I'm happy with it. I got it at K-Mart. Not my favorite store in the world - I always leave that place feeling dirty. Also, it's from the Martha Stewart line of trees, and I had to break some of my own moral codes to actually purchase a tree from that lady, but sometimes you've got to sell your soul to get what you want.
Happy Holidays!

NP: Love Like Winter, AFI