Here is an excerpt of an article about the Chinese production of artificial trees and plastic Christmas ornaments:
Liao Jiahua, flipped through his glossy catalogue of goods, the economics propelling his business emerged. He pointed at his most popular seller, the “Canadian pine.” The cost of making it at his factory is about $10.80, he said. Three-fourths of the cost is materials, mostly plastic and wire. The rest goes to electricity, water and labor. His 300 workers earn about $125 each per month.
Liao sells each Canadian pine to a company specializing in foreign trade for about $12, he said, booking a 10 percent profit. And when the trading company sells that same tree to retailers who put it on their shelves in the United States, it fetches about $120, he said.
Artificial Christmas trees are one thing that I didn’t have to give up in my quest to consume less plastic. I grew up on a farm that was more than half woodland. There was always a day set aside before Christmas when the most ambitious boys would trudge out through the snow to cut down a promising young fir tree. We would model it outside the kitchen window like we were Barker’s Beauties and my mom would give it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. A tree that was weighed, measured and found wanting would be added to the brush that we used as banking on the North side of the house. The favored one would be brought inside and decorated with… oh, that’s right…PLASTIC STUFF 
If I was planning to have a tree this year, I think I would go with strings of popcorn and other such reusable or compostable stuff. I think I could also get the kids to make an origami tree angel without too much coercion.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
I can’t imagine having a fake tree, I don’t plan on giving up a real tree or all the decorations but I’m not going to buy any new ornaments anymore. Really I have more then I need now and I don’t want to bring more plastic in just to decorate with for a couple weeks.
November 17th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
My green take on Christmas Trees is that when the wife and I moved into our home we bought a live, balled fir for our first year. We dressed it with the typical glass and plastic ornaments that we have acquired through the years, and then we planted it outside when the season had passed. The tree now lives in our front yard, and it looks great. During this Christmas and future holiday seasons we decorate the tree with ornaments made of bird-seed. We have a red bow that we tie to the top of it. The bird-seed ornaments look great and they attract other colorful, lively ornaments (birds). This makes it so that we don’t have to bring a tree into the house, we don’t have to chop a new tree down each year, we don’t have to “settle” for a plastic tree… In general this cuts down on a lot of waste, and it is a more fulfilling experience. Plus birds make nests in the tree all year ’round.
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