In the interest of full discloser let me get this out, I can’t stand fake Christmas Trees. If you’re looking for a balanced debate between the beautiful, real Christmas Tree and those hunks of plastic you’re going to need to go somewhere else. Currently in Ontario more than 500 farmers are producing over one million Christmas Trees each year. One acre of planted Christmas trees provides the oxygen required by 18 people every day, plastic can’t do this. Christmas trees are 100 per cent biodegradable and, after the holidays, the trees are mulched and are used in municipal parks. Fake trees will sit in landfills for centuries. Pharmaceutical companies in Ontario also extract ingredients from tree needles for flu vaccines. I couldn’t find any information on the life saving abilities of plastic trees.
There, now that we’ve got that debate out of the way it is clear that if you buy a plastic Christmas Tree you really don’t like breathing that much and want people to catch the flu. Do the right thing; real trees are the way to go.