Art Decelles has cut his own Christmas tree for the past 32 years. On Monday afternoon, Decelles and daughters Nicole and Katie went to the Leavenworth Tree Farm on Coleman Road in Cheshire for the first time. The Wolcott resident said he found the farm on the Internet "and I thought we should have no problem getting a tree."

It's not that Decelles, a father of five, has never considered an artificial tree.

"I try every year," he said. "But the kids don't want it."

For many, the choice between a real and an artificial tree may be no more complicated than the question of whether you want to be sweeping up or vacuuming pine needles. For years, artificial trees gained market share until reaching about half of U.S. households in the 1990s and edging into the majority later. A recent poll on Myrecordjournal.com found 330 respondents split just about evenly over the choice between an artificial and a real Christmas tree.

But there's indication that both ecological and economic considerations may be reversing that trend.

The choice is not always, pardon the expression, clear cut.

For the third year, the Southington Land Conservation Trust is offering to pick up trees at the curbside after the holiday season and dispose of them in an ecologically friendly way. For a $10 donation to the land trust, the trees are taken, put through a wood chipper and the chips are used for the parking lot of the Southington YMCA's Camp Sloper.

"People really appreciate the fact they we take their Christmas tree and it's not going to end up in a landfill," said Bonnie Sica, land trust president.

Sica, however, has had an artificial tree in her own home for the past dozen years. It started when her son, Steven, now a student at Kennedy Middle School, as a toddler started eating the pine needles off a real tree.

"So I had to go out and get a fake Christmas tree," she said. "Now that I have one, I feel funny about getting a real one."

That's even though Sica acknowledges that real trees are better for the environment. "I think you have to do whatever you're comfortable with," she said.

Sales of real trees, whether cut-your-own or pre-cut, appear to be healthy this holiday season, said Kathy Kogut, a Meriden resident who is executive director of the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association.

"Part of the reason this year is that people can't afford the artificial tree," she said. "Everyone I've talked to reports they're equal or ahead this year."

There are about 5,000 acres of tree land in Connecticut, said Kogut. Christmas trees grow in the Nutmeg State on farm land that is unsuitable for any other crop, she said. There are about 500 Christmas tree growers and 150 farms where you can cut your own, Kogut said.

Kogut attributes the rebound in natural trees as a choice for Christmas to a general return to tradition following 9/11 and a younger generation more concerned about ecology.

"Artificial stays in the dump forever," she said.

"There's also the excitement that goes along with going out and getting your own," said Justin Knickerbocker, general manager of the Leavenworth Tree Farm.

Bad weather can keep people from coming out and cutting their own, he said, but generally even in tight economic times most are willing to keep Christmas trees off the list of things on which to cut back.

"They figure, hey, it's Christmas, let's cut a tree," he said.

"It gives everyone a nice feeling to have this beautiful, live-smelling Christmas tree in the home," he said.

There are choices other than real or artificial. There's the option of no tree at all; 15 percent of those responding to the Record-Journal poll said they weren't getting a tree this season.

And then there's the option pursued by Mary Ann and Sonny Ladd. Thirty years ago, theirs was a five-foot indoor Christmas tree with roots in a burlap sack. They dug a hole in the side yard and after Christmas planted the tree in the hole, loosened the burlap sack, threw some dirt on and watched the tree grow.

"It just kept growing," Mary Ann Ladd said.

For years, the tree featured outdoor holiday decorations, but eventually grew to the point where that was no longer feasible.

"As it kept growing, we'd get a ladder but, finally, we said we can't do this anymore," she said.

Earlier this month, the tree, which had grown to just under 30 feet, was taken to Hubbard Park as the Ladds' donation to Meriden's Christmas celebration.

The Ladds' in-home tree this year, as it has been for the last six, is artificial. That's because of allergies, said Mary Ann Ladd. Given the choice, it would be the real thing, she said.

"I definitely would have real," she said. "There's nothing like a real tree."

jkurz@record-journal.com

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