How Climate-Friendly Is Your Christmas Tree?

BY ARYN BAKER

As a child growing up in suburban southern California, there was no holiday tradition more important than the faux-winter ritual of picking out a Christmas tree at our community college’s tree lot.

“According to the Nielsen study, 75% of American respondents who buy artificial trees intend to use them for five or more years. Nearly 50% said they would keep theirs for at least ten. I’ve had my tree for 12 years. And while it lists to one side because of a cracked base—victim of an impromptu dance party—and some of the branches have gone bald from excess ornamenting, I’m going to hold on to it for as long as it stands upright. After all, each scar has its own memories, and that is what tradition is really about.”