So the holidays are coming up, and if you’re one of the ¾ of North Americans that get a tree for the season, that means it’s time to pick it out. So what do you choose? An artificial tree or a real one? Evidently, both have their pros and cons. While a real tree might look more authentic and fill your house with that wonderful Christmas-y scent, an artificial one might be easier to maintain, what with needles falling everywhere from the real ones. Not to mention the cost on the environment: it’s clearly better to get a fake tree and reuse it than to cut down a tree from a forest.

But is it really?

There are around 40 million Christmas trees sold every year, and that’s in North America alone. That’s 40 million chopped trees to decorate people’s homes, 40 million times the greenhouse gasses stored in those trees escapes, not to mention 40 million less trees left to soak up more CO₂. And frankly, no one wants to just stop having Christmas trees. So what do we do? We make fake trees that we can simply re-use year after year! Simple, right?

I’m sure we’ve all heard this argument before. But before grabbing your boots and running out to the nearest artificial-tree-dispensing store, hear me out.

First of all, most trees we get for the holidays come from farms, most of which make sure to plant another tree for each one cut down. This means that we are neither destroying an ecosystem by pulling away all of its Christmas-tree-shaped species, or even cutting down trees that were destined to suck CO₂ out of the air for the rest of our lives. The trees we decorate our houses with are trees that were meant for this use, and however dire that may sound, it’s actually a good thing. Plus, real trees can be recycled: in fact, a real tree that is recycled or that you keep in a pot with roots can actually have no (or even negative) emissions.

80% of the trees in American households are artificial trees, most of which are made predominantly from plastic and metal. In fact, the production of the materials alone that these artificial trees are made out of make up nearly two-thirds of their environmental footprint. And another quarter of this footprint comes from the manufacturing of the actual tree. Add all this to shipping the trees over the oceans and into your city, usually from China, and some other factors you get a whopping 40 kg of greenhouse gas emissions for ONE average 6.5-ft Christmas tree. That’s more than twice the impact as a real tree that ends up in a landfill and more than 10 times the impact of a real tree that is burnt, as is the case in many municipalities.

Tim O’Connor, from the N.C.T.A. (an organization that represents the farmers who sell real trees), said that it was “fall-off-your horse simple that a tree made out of oil, turned into PVC plastic in China and shipped over on a boat, cannot be better than a growing tree.”

As well as all this, almost all artificial trees contain PVC, as Mr. O’Connor mentioned, a chemical that not only pollutes when it is being produced, but also cannot be recycled: this means that no matter how long you use your tree for, it will always end up in a landfill. And how long would you have to use an artificial tree for before it had less of a footprint than buying a real tree? Well, considering the ridiculously high footprint attributed to artificial trees, it takes 15 to 20 years for your artificial tree to be beneficial to the environment. But there’s a catch: the average fake tree only lasts from 6 to 9 years.

So what are we supposed to do? Neither option is ideal.

Well, there are some things you can do to insure that either option is as ecological as possible.

If you want to stick with the real tree, you can make sure your tree is locally grown, and that it hasn’t travelled hundreds of kilometers in polluting vehicles to get to your home. Another thing growing in popularity is buying or renting a rooted tree in a pot for Christmas, so after the holidays are done, it can continue to grow and convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. And, of course, if you are getting a real tree, make sure it gets recycled (or at least composted)!

If you want to get an artificial tree, try to find one that’s pre-loved. Many websites like eBay and Kijiji can make finding a second-hand tree as easy as it gets. But if you’re really into getting a brand-new artificial tree, then make sure it is non-PVC. Besides, the alternative is PE (polyethylene), which makes for prettier needles and it’s a safer chemical for us and for the environment, so it’s a win-win.

There are many places where you get a good Christmas tree. My personal favourite is Atwater Market, where you can walk around in the trees and choose your favourite and even look around their Christmas market, but the Jean Talon market also has trees, as well as the Maisonneuve market, Lachine market, Quinn Farm, Centre de Jardin Brossard and even some big stores like IKEA, Rona, Home Depot and Provigo. You can get artificial tree in many places too, most significantly Canadian Tire, Calfolia Canada, Home Depot, Rona, Kijiji, eBay and more. But if you want to rent a tree, then there is one great place where you can do that, at Green Poppies Christmas Trees, where they will deliver to your door and pick up the tree too: you don’t even need to get out and go get it!