The issue is further weighted in favor of live trees when you consider that plastic trees need to be kept somewhere in your McMansion for the other 48 weeks of the year. Storing a plastic tree involves creating indoor square footage that could have remained as lawn or woods, and which will require heating all winter and a/c all summer.

Compare that to the natural tree, which sits outside breathing in CO2 for its entire life, with its roots in the soil fixing nutrients and rain water, and its transpiration helping generate rain clouds. Yes, the natural tree will eventually release its CO2 as it decomposes, but much of that will remain in the soil system rather than escaping into the atmosphere, in the process that leads over millions of years to the creation of fossil fuels (eg, carbon sequestered by dead things) in the first place.

Your best bet is to plant a tree in a big pot and wheel it inside every Xmas, and then plant it permanently outside when it is getting too big to move. A suburban family could get many years out of each tree, and end up with a lovely backyard display of a lifetime's holiday memories.

If keeping a live tree is not feasible (eg, for apartment dwellers or in a trailer park), the obvious green solution is to buy a tree from the closest farm you can locate. A small amount of attention to buying local will make a big difference in fuel usage, especially for something as heavy as a tree.

I'd argue with the storage costs issue. Most houses - including a small house (and I've owned one REALLY small house in my time) have space that's not easy to access, and therefore no good for storage of stuff that you need on an everyday basis. But, it's quite useful for stuff you only pull out once per year. Areas under the basement stairs come to mind, or in an attic. I've NEVER run out of storage space; it may have been inconvenient to get to it, but I've always had it.

One issue that hasn't been addressed here, that I've seen, is the safety of pets. Dogs can get sick from drinking the water the tree is in - I've never heard of it being fatal (but I'm not a vet), but I do know of some people who have had to use quite a few strong cleaning products after Fido drank the tree water and produced a disgusting mess all over the carpet.

My tree is stored in the attic which is not heated or cooled during the year. It also does not reduce my living space. Since I do not use all of my attic, the storage makes no difference at all.

The PVC, shipping costs and disposal are good arguments for having a real tree. I am curious of how the land that bears the real trees would be used if noone bought real trees. I think this is the real issue with real trees. Would it be a corn field? or a recreation area? Would rare species of birds and animals use the land if it was not in agriculture? I am sure it differs from place to place.....

One more thing, there is a cost to haul away all of those trees each year and not all communities turn them to mulch (our trees go to the landfill)

So the next time you pass by one of those parking lots where the Optimist Club is selling Christmas trees, do the Universe a big favor and throw fake blood on them. We must take a stand against Clubs who profit by the sale of Christmas trees. Their evil schemes result in thousands of people in Third World countries getting free eyewear. Or maybe that's the Rotary Club. Anyway, just throw fake blood on someone. That way you'll feel involved in the solution....

I really don't care that much. Get what you want. I think this is an argument that is simular to "paper or plastic". I think the most environmental friendly thing to do would be to draw a tree on the wall. :-)

I store my fake tree in my unheated crawl space--not a lot of energy waste there. Also this is the 18th year I've used it. When my kids move out I probably won't decorate a tree at all.