Are Real or Fake Christmas Trees More Popular in Minnesota?
When it comes to those festive trees we bring into our homes and decorate each holiday season, do we favor real or artificial trees here in Minnesota?
The debate over whether to have a real or artificial Christmas tree always seems similar to me to the debate over whether you have a charcoal or gas grill here in Minnesota. There are passionate people who favor BOTH kinds!
When I was a kid growing up over in central Wisconsin, we always had an artificial tree that dad would painstakingly take out of the big box in the basement and assemble every year. This well before today's artificial trees that really do look like real trees, mind you. Our fake tree, though it was pretty once it was all decorated, looked more like it was made from green pipe cleaners.
At some point, though, when I was in junior high, I complained enough that dad went and got us a real tree-- and I've been a real tree fan ever since. My wife and I always get a real tree every year too. And, yes, we even trudged out into the woods and cut down a real tree years ago during our first Christmas after we moved into our house here in Rochester.
As it turns out, real Christmas trees are more popular throughout the Land of 10,000 Lakes this year too. A new survey from forevermoments.com looked at online data from Thanksgiving Day to now, tracking tweets and hashtags about putting up or buying either a real or artificial Christmas tree. The survey tracked over 200,000 tweets in compiling their data.
And according to that survey, Minnesota is one of 32 states where more residents are setting real Christmas trees than artificial trees. That's also the case in my home state of Wisconsin, as well as North Dakota too. Interestingly, artificial trees are more popular this year in Iowa and South Dakota as well as in 16 other states too, including New York and California.
And whether you prefer a real or artificial tree, they can both look festive, right? Keep scrolling to check out some of the best Christmas tree and holiday light displays here in Minnesota (and for a chance to grab a cool $1,000 for showing us a picture of YOUR holiday displays too!)
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