Editor’s note: Features coordinator Barbara Ellis takes a side in the “real vs. fake” Christmas tree debate. Look for the counterpoint by Editorial Page editor Megan Schrader .

I can still see my dad, hand slapping his forehead, looking exasperated, as my mom instructed (OK, bossed) him on how to “fix up” the live Christmas tree they had brought home from a hardware store lot in our small Massachusetts town .

She made him purchase extra branches “to fill the tree out.”

“Drill a hole and insert this branch there, Joe. And then that one goes there. No, there.”

“OK, now take this branch out and put it on top.”

Related: Colorado’s national forests open for Christmas tree cutting — with strict rules

And most years, it was too wide to fit through the door, and too tall to stand in our

See Full Page