I have a large garden, so I have a real Christmas tree outside. But it grows rapidly, and is already the height of a two story house! I have solar string lights put on it, mainly because no power cord would reach the tree. Inside I use a small plastic tree.
So I want to know, do you like a real tree or a small 4-5ft plastic tree? Also, Merry Christmas!

I have a tiny garden and i try to re-use last year's christmas tree. Bought one 60cm high, this year it's 80cm (and significantly harder to dig out of the ground, it has a healthy root system). We'll see how many years it'll survive, and how many years it is physically possible to put it in a big bucket and move it indoors.

Real trees simply look better. But plastic trees are of course a lot cheaper if you want a big one every year. Compared to other 10-15 year old trees, christmas trees are surprisingly cheap, but a human-size one can easily cost 50 euro.

(Side note: incandescent multi color mini lights in the tree, color 27 'Incandescent Fluorescent' lighting the dark corner at night - and a 2,4m long t12 tube in the corner that lives there because it's the safest place for it)

@Laurens Nice photo! Especially with the cat posing, mine doesn't like to be in any photos.


Unfortunately I dont have any photos of the tree with decorations put up, as the palm trees next to it have covered it up. But I do have some photos of the tree without decorations from summer 2025.


Just a few years ago this was a small 2m tree, which was in a pot and could be kept inside. Now its become huge. The bottom few layers of branches have broken off, leaving the tall tree with a tiny looking base.

@Laurens: Meow!

Digging in and out repeatedly a live tree for use as Christmas tree seems wrong to me. I would leave it alone

To me (as one who only symbolically uses a Christmas tree if at all - i'm not Christian, but i like celebrating along anyway), it's either a fake one indoors, or just throw some lights on whatever grows outside (even if it is not the correct type of tree)

But do take them off before the tree grows over them and entangles them - They dont belong there

BTW, the dollar store equivalent has decorative fake trees of unnatural colors (totally White, totally Black) of about 5 ft height, in a weightened pot, for about $30. And they are also the wrong type of tree. Still, i can imagine trying them out. (I don't, because waste of money and resources)

All my trees inside are fake, most range from 4 to 7.5 foot (have a few of those oddball colored trees too, which I really like!). Nearly all get LED lights.

There's a big old sprucetree in the backyard that when it was allot smaller I used to put lights on (its now close to 40').
Sometimes I'll put lights on a couple junipers in the frontyard, but thats it for decorating plant-life... Lights go on the house itself.

Most cheap indoor fake trees have the wrong shade of green, it's either too much teal, or too much lime. I live in a tropical region, so the trees are more of a lush grassy green instead of a cooler forest green.So I spray paint it with a lush green to make it feel more natural.

I love real trees but I am allergic lol. We used to have them, but now we have a fake one. It doesn't look very convincing, but it is definitely less work.

We usually sneak out to the local pine plantation and chop down one of the trees that hasn't grown much, only about 2m tall. The cats usually jump up and smack down some of the decorations lol.

We use fake trees here, though I do prefer ones that look realistic.