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Not diamonds but decorations! And not just Christmas but other holidays/seasons as well.

This morning as I was tidying in the dining room I looked at my big blue and white bowl full of pumpkins and leaves and thought --

sigh, this weekend it will go in the trash!

But then I thought that when you use real things that you don't have the storage needs that you do when you use faux -- you have got to store that faux somewhere!

Which brought me back to when I was a child -- and our Christmas was on a shelf in a closet -- and then in the sideboard my mother had some holiday ceramics (Christmas, Thanksgiving).

I've not always been "real" -- for I've had faux and had bins in the basement but over time I've gotten rid of them.

This weekend, when fall/Thanksgiving is "put away" -- it will be into a trash bag (or two) and out to the trash rather than hauling empty bins up from the basement and full bins back down.

It surely saves a lot of hauling! LOL!!

Martha

quote:

It surely saves a lot of hauling! LOL!!

So true!

In an ideal world I would prefer real over faux in almost everything. However the reality is that I am sensitive to molds which are on a lot of real organics found in the woods. So for over 40 years I've had faux Christmas trees, faux garlands, and faux cedar and pine, etc. Makes for a lot of storage but a healthier environment for me.

I really dislike resin objects altho do have some. Much prefer wood, ceramic, metal, etc. Not sure what it is about resin that I find objectionable.

This is the year I attempt to edit my Christmas stuff. Haven't used a lot of it for a few years anyhow but it's difficult to decide what to keep and what to let go. No one really *needs* a large closetful of decorations.

As a child we had a live Cedar cut from my late Dad's parents' farm. Also running cedar and real mistletoe. For years, couldn't figure out why I was sick after Christmas----the tree and greenery.

I love the look and fragrance of real too.

With family with asthma, the real had to go.

Really need to edit our decorations too. Don't use all of them anymore. Would love to get a smaller tree this year. Our old tree is so large around the lower portion that it takes up precious room. Also, limbs so low can't put gifts under it. Too tall to raise it any.

To me it is being with family during the season that matters the most, not wheter real or faux.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Strings,

and age is factor, too, lol...with us it's a simple 4 ft'er on the desk in the lr, over the large faux or real...

do have one of those charlie brown stories, though...we were barely making ends meet, 4 kids, and that aweful, we can't afford a christmas tree! was driving thu the store parking lot, and low and behold trees for buck! we ended up with a pretty (although dry and needles dropping) tree! needless to say it only lasted a couple of days but christmas was saved!

later, we did find a faux tree that lasted us for years..never wanted to be in that situation again..at least it was green and NOT alum!

I can't tolerate real evergreen in the house, so faux it is for me. I agree that it's a pain to store, but that's better than sneezing and sniffling throughout the holiday.

The faux greenery and trees are so much more realistic looking than in years past- sometimes its hard to tell.

I always, always prefer real. That said I am using some cute faux leaves on my Thanksgiving table this year. They are over sized and colorful, and kind of fun and funky. And I have a faux flower arrangement in one bathroom that I just love. No hard and fast rules about it for me. But there is something graceful and simple and beautiful about the real thing that just can't be duplicated.

It just depends.

For fall, I saw an idea where they had wrapped artificial fall leaf vines in through an outdoor evergreen bush.

Bought vines when on clearance this fall, and am looking forward to using it next fall.

Window boxes are always silks. We go away for extended times during the summer, and we'd have to hire someone to water them. No thanks.

In the house, it's a mix.

My preference is real, but reality sets in very quickly.

Tho I too prefer real vs. faux, it's often impractical, short lived and not frugal. I prefer a mix of faux and real. Mixing the two fools the eye. There is also less waste and less room needed for storage.

For example, I made a Fall buffet top arrangement the other day for a good friend who is hosting a post Thanksgiving wine tasting dinner party. It was fashioned without marbles or floral foam because it was done inside a gorgeous crystal rose bowl...a family heirloom. I had a bunch of red and a bunch of green faux grapes spilling down one side. The flowers were quality silk and some dried pods. I instructed my friend to buy 2-3 Bosch pears to display in a smaller crystal bowl beside the arrangement. Unless the grapes were handled, they could convincingly pass for real.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Froo Froo,

So, sjf, I'm "assuming" you won't be looking forward to a picture of my aluminum tree this season! LOL!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jaysmom49,

This year for the outdoor fall decor I had a combination of faux and real pumpkins. the faux ones were purchased last year and the year before. some of the faux ones are starting to peel, so will have to be discarded.
As for greenery for Christmas garlands and wreath's use faux. We live in a dry, warm climate, so real doesn't last very long at all.
But always get a real tree.

Mostly real but a combo of some faux. I use fresh garland outside and we always have a real tree. I do have fake garland that I use on my mantle because our wood fireplace dries out fresh garland and then I worry it's a fire hazard!

For fall, we get real pumpkins but I do have one fake light up pumpkin that goes on automatically every night that's surrounded by real pumpkins. We carve a real pumpkin but only put a lit candle (tea light for safety) in it on Halloween. I've become fire phobic after we had a major fire a few years ago in our neighborhood that destroyed three homes on a blustery night before Christmas and a fatal fire this summer a block away when we lost power due to the Derecho storm. Caused some anxiety with my kids so we are extremely careful now (and dH's house burned down when he was in high school tho that was due to faulty wiring in a garage fridge). Sorry, going off on a tangent but please be careful with candles and fires this winter!

No allergies or asthma here so when a tree is put up, it's a real tree. Most other decorating items are faux, knick-knacks, etc.

Regardless of whether it's real or faux...you're still toting. Either up and down the basement/attic stairs - to the closet - or from the store to the house then to the trash. I will concede that you have to be more particular packing the faux things away, but the totin' is still the same.

As I said above, I used some faux on my Thanksgiving tablet his year, and I came back to show how it turned out.

I found these leaves on clearance at Rite Aid for .75 for a pack of twelve, so I couldn't pass up that bargain! I tied leaves around some large glass containers that I purchased for one of my daughters wedding several years ago. I made 5 containers to go down the table, and then put small votives along between them. (I line up a few tables end to end to accommodate 30 people, so this is just a part of the table)

Sometimes faux is really fun!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: cocok,

A close up.

I once wanted to decorate my apartment with cream-color poinsettias... They were expensive then so I bought three and then 'enhanced' with faux ones; I liked the results.

If money were no object.....real, real, real. That being said, some decorations just have to be used and reused. I do use more real pumpkins than fake, but sometimes a fake is actually cuter than the real. www.alwaysnesting.blogspot.com