Alternative Christmas Tree

Artificial Christmas trees are made with PVC's, polyvinyl chloride petroleum-derived plastic that carries with it risks to human health. Toxins found in artificial trees are known to cause damage to your liver, kidney, neurological and reproductive system as well as being a potential source of lead. According to Ellipsos.ca you need to use your artificial tree 20 years before it will be equal to the environmental footprint of a real Christmas tree. The older your tree, the more likely it is to be shedding lead dust, which posses a serious health hazard to children and pets, by the time you have reached the 20 year milestone you have exposed yourself and your family to more than a decade of potential lead exposure.

Artificial trees will eventually end up in our landfills indefinitely.

It takes 6 to 9 years and sometimes12 to grow a Christmas tree on a tree farm. That's almost a decade of chemical herbicides being used. According to the University of Illinois "In the United States, there are around a half billion Real Christmas Trees growing on U.S. farms. " that's a lot of chemical herbicides! Factor in gas emitting equipment and transportation of the trees to retail sites, they can't be considered benign.

~Try a living tree wrapped in burlap or in a pot: Store the tree until after Christmas and then plant outdoors.

~If you live in an apartment: Rent a living tree.

~Make your own tree: A tall vase with stones in the bottom to support branches in a bouquet. Or something like we do at our home a large branch in a tree stand.

~Purchase or grow your own miniature evergreen tree or bonsai, decorate a household tree or plant.

~Decorating a tree outdoors with safe decorations for animals.

~Wall art and decals, mural if your extremely creative.

Feather Christmas trees were first created in Germany in the 1800's and are thought to be the first types of artificial Christmas trees made. Feather Christmas trees came about in response to growing environmental concerns in Germany in the late 19th century of deforestation associated with the harvesting of Christmas trees, environmental concerns that have continued to grow and pose a problem in today's environment. Feather Christmas trees came to the United States by German immigrants. These trees were made from metal wire and covered with goose, ostrich and swan feathers, which were often dyed green to look like pine needles.

How to make a Feather tree:

Attach feathers to floral wire, feathers are then split and secured with more wire to create the branches. A wooden dowel which acts as the trunk of the tree is used to hold the branches. Branches are spaced far apart to leave room for candles and to avoid catching on fire., but with today's modern Christmas tree lights, this is less of a concern. Feather Christmas trees can be made a small as a few inches or as big as you like. I'm going to save up mt Chantecler feathers and see what I can create.

This is a picture of our Christmas ~ Bodhi Tree before it was decorated. It was adorned with white lights, origami cranes, silver stars and glass icicles. This particular branch was about 11 feet tall and 7 - 8 feet at its widest point. One year we had our tree behind our couch, it was the most beautiful sight, wispy branches cascading above us with clear white lights. It's hard to really appreciate it until you see your branch lite up at night when its dark. Our city puts up lights on the bare trees in town during the holiday season, its a very dramatic look, the bare branches symbolizing change, leaving behind the old (leaves) with the bright white light shinning the way.

We usually start looking for our Christmas Branch in the spring and summer months. There have been many time a branch has come down during the winter months or spring storms. Once discovered it get set aside for winter, hauled in and set up for the holidays. If we can't find fallen branches we assess trees that require pruning or walk through wooded ares looking for just the right branch. When the holidays are done, more often than not our tree remains in the house far beyond February (longest was July), we take it down and reuse it as kindling in our cook woodstove.

An average fresh cut Christmas tree can cost between $25 - $60 and even higher. Money that you would have put towards a Christmas Tree could be used in the following ways this Christmas:

Become a lender through KIVA and help families create and grow their business that supports their family and community. Microfinancing a $25.00 loan will have a positive impact on the lives of people around the world who are working hard toward self sufficiency and creating much needed employment. World Vision has a gift giving program that allows you to choose where you'd like to see your money go, for example you can gift 2 Mosquito Nets for $30, or Agricultural Packs for 3 Families for just $35, or purcahse 5 Fruit Trees $30.

UNICEF offers Survival Gifts, you can choose your gift under these categories: Health, Education, Water, Food, Play, Emergency or by Greatest Need. You can supply 80 Pencils & 80 Notebooks to children who would not have the opportunity to write and draw for just for $40 or provide 1 Soccer Ball & 1 Pump for $32.

OXFAM Unwrapped has a wonderful catalogue that allows you to gift a goat for $58, or provide safe water for just $22, 9 bags of seeds for $30 and a chicken for $15. Just imagine what you Christmas tree can do!

Don't forget your local food bank. Donating money or non perishable food items to the Ontario Association of Food banks is desperately needed during these difficult economical times.