The Christmas Tree Debate

My girlfriend and I trimmed our first tree last weekend- yet before making our purchase, we wondered whether buying a real tree or a fake tree was better for our environment, and which carbon footprint was smaller. Granted, not putting up a tree at all would have been the most carbon neutral effort, yet I already grumble about the madness of the holidays, so I had to temper my grench-ness on this one.
An argument can be made for fake trees, because they are re-used annually and thus don’t pile up as waste every New Year's Eve. But when they do end up in the landfill, they will be there for hundreds of years, leaking polyvinyl chloride (PVC), one of the most environmentally offensive forms of non-renewable, petroleum-derived plastic, into the earth. And, they're not nearly as fun as a real tree. But that real tree was growing a few days ago, breathing in Carbon Dioxide and breathing out oxygen. But maybe it wouldn't have been there if it's dad knew I wouldn't be buying it...
San Francisco has a cool program- you buy a potted tree, have it delivered to your house, decorate it, sing carols to it, and after Christmas the city will pick it up and plant it. What a green way to celebrate Christmas! Click link for article:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/12/15/MNGADG8GN81.DTL

Well, we bought a 6' douglas fir, because the little guy looked cold outside and we thought it needed a good home to live out its final days. We'll drink some egg nog by it, and then make sure it rests peacefully as mulch in someone's garden. And we're committed to planting a tree to take it's place- more on that next time.