FAKE CHRISTMAS TREES, YUK!

I have these thoughts that have been with me for year and years.  This is one of them.  Thoughts, that is, not years.  Since I was a young person and since artificial Christmas trees became a big item, I have taken a  negative stance about them.  They have always seemed to me to be an insult to the One for whom they are brought into our lives to begin with. I remember the early days of my being an altar boy.  At one of our instructional meetings, we were told that all the candles used in church had to be of beeswax.  We were also told that flowers for use in the church had to be natural.  We were told that there should be no radios or "Victrolas" guiding the prayers or the singing of the priest and the congregation.  We were told that, because what went into God's house should be purely natural.
Silly as it may seem, that  teaching rang a bell with me.  It reminded me that the flowers that I picked and brought to my mother were real.  They were dandelions, true enough, but they were natural.  At the tender age that I heard the development of the thought that it's only worthy of being given as a gift if it is real, I agreed with it and I haven't forgotten it since.

It only LOOKS fake

There have been times when the "tree" that we sat around at Christmas time was not a nice, aromatic Canadian Pine.  No siree! There were times when it was a simple, struggling coffee tree that we knew had to go anyway.  So, scraggly as may have been, it was real, it was Christmas and we needed a tree.  So we had a real live coffee tree in a five gallon bucket. One of those trees survived the ordeal, so we found a place to plant it in the hopes that it would thrive.  It really never made it, so we used it again the following year and then used it for firewood.  Our first year alone, here in the United States, we had no resources for a Christmas tree.  No resources that is, to pay for one.  We did the unthinkable and went for a "spin" to the desert and got ourselves some real nice cacti, brought them home,"spiffied" them up a little bit,and presto, Christmas.
I was reminded of this adventure today when we visited the Christmas tree sales location and collected a big bunch of twigs, brambles and parts of branches from the trimmed stuff that happens when the tree is groomed for the living room.  We gathered them up, brought them home and placed them in the bucket in which we have a wonderful three year balsam pine growing.  When we get it all dressed up and glorified, we'll take a picture and send it to you.
Actually, we were going to use a cactus that we have growing that is also in a five gallon bucket and it is five foot tall.  Our son wouldn't hear of it, so we went the other route.  Maybe some day, (next year?) he'll come around and we'll have our way!
Our house is also a church, so we don't do fake.  No matter what.