Where Can I Get A Christmas Tree?

[Gaspar]

We go to Owasso every year.  It's become a tradition. 
We buy our Chrismhanakuanza tree, get some cider and take pictures of the kids wondering around the Chrismhanakuanza tree farm.

[swake]

Pleasant Valley Farm in Sand Springs is really good, and good prices too.

[Conan71]

After a drunken friend of mine set fire to one at the curb and I saw how quickly it went up, I decided artificial makes more sense.  I can always replicate the smell of an evergreen in my house with a candle or reed infuser.  Not having a potential blazing inferno with electricity wrapped around it makes me feel more secure.  I'm also horribly allergic to the needles.  Decorating a tree would leave little red bumps up and down my arms.

[Gaspar]

After a drunken friend of mine set fire to one at the curb and I saw how quickly it went up, I decided artificial makes more sense.  I can always replicate the smell of an evergreen in my house with a candle or reed infuser.  Not having a potential blazing inferno with electricity wrapped around it makes me feel more secure.  I'm also horribly allergic to the needles.  Decorating a tree would leave little red bumps up and down my arms.

I throw a limb in the chiminea every year to show the wife and kids that a Christmas tree is about like having an open bucket of gasoline in the living room with lights wrapped around it.  A single limb will turn a chiminea into the afterburner on an X15. 

WARNING don't do it unless you have a very heavy duty chiminea (mine is very old 3" thick terracotta) and a WIDE open space.  The flames get about 15ft in the air.  My neighbor copied my actions one year and his chiminea shattered into a thousand pieces.  The newer chiminea's are very cheaply made.

[Conan71]

I throw a limb in the chiminea every year to show the wife and kids that a Christmas tree is about like having an open bucket of gasoline in the living room with lights wrapped around it.  A single limb will turn a chiminea into the afterburner on an X15. 

WARNING don't do it unless you have a very heavy duty chiminea (mine is very old 3" thick terracotta) and a WIDE open space.  The flames get about 15ft in the air.  My neighbor copied my actions one year and his chiminea shattered into a thousand pieces.  The newer chiminea's are very cheaply made.

A chiminea isn't designed to be used as a flame-thrower, however, if done after it's had plenty of time to warm up, there shouldn't have been near enough rapid thermal expansion to shatter it like that.  I bet that got the neighbor's attention.

We were all pretty plowed when my buddy pulled his little stunt.  I was having a party at my Mom's house when home on Xmas break during college.  One of my friends thought it was funny to drag his family's dead tree into my mother's living room.  After the laughs had subsided, he dragged the tree to the curb.  About an hour later there's a "WHOOSH" out front and flames.  I thought a car had blown up at first.

IIRC, the tree was completely involved within 10 to 15 seconds.  It actually made an explosive sound when the whole tree became involved.  It was a smoldering hulk in less than two minutes.  I'm not sure the whole mechanism unless there's a gas which is realeased pretty quickly by the needles when they get hot.  Quite impressive and the burned out skeleton of a tree the next morning looked pretty ominous.

[Gaspar]

A chiminea isn't designed to be used as a flame-thrower, however, if done after it's had plenty of time to warm up, there shouldn't have been near enough rapid thermal expansion to shatter it like that.  I bet that got the neighbor's attention.

We were all pretty plowed when my buddy pulled his little stunt.  I was having a party at my Mom's house when home on Xmas break during college.  One of my friends thought it was funny to drag his family's dead tree into my mother's living room.  After the laughs had subsided, he dragged the tree to the curb.  About an hour later there's a "WHOOSH" out front and flames.  I thought a car had blown up at first.

IIRC, the tree was completely involved within 10 to 15 seconds.  It actually made an explosive sound when the whole tree became involved.  It was a smoldering hulk in less than two minutes.  I'm not sure the whole mechanism unless there's a gas which is realeased pretty quickly by the needles when they get hot.  Quite impressive and the burned out skeleton of a tree the next morning looked pretty ominous.

It's actually worse with a green tree, just takes longer to get it started.  The green needles contain much more oil and turpen.  First the needles pop and release a ton of vapor then the whole mass of vapor explodes like a FAE.  It's quite breathtaking. . .and horrifying.  I can understand why that Smokey The Bear guy gets his panties in such a wad!

[swake]

The fire thing is way overblown. The actual risk is minuscule. There are 25-30 million fresh Christmas trees sold per year and only about 250 fires are started from trees. So if you have a real tree you are running a risk of about 100-120,000 to 1 chance of a fire. Your chance of dying in such a fire is almost two million to one.
http://www.christmastree.org/facts.cfm
http://www.orangevillage.com/pdf/Holiday%20Fire%20Safety%20Tips.pdf

And the fires aren't started by the lights either
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/db/science/christmas-tree-lights-and-house-fires.html

[Conan71]

The fire thing is way overblown. The actual risk is minuscule. There are 25-30 million fresh Christmas trees sold per year and only about 250 fires are started from trees. So if you have a real tree you are running a risk of about 100-120,000 to 1 chance of a fire. Your chance of dying in such a fire is almost two million to one.
http://www.christmastree.org/facts.cfm
http://www.orangevillage.com/pdf/Holiday%20Fire%20Safety%20Tips.pdf

And the fires aren't started by the lights either
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/db/science/christmas-tree-lights-and-house-fires.html

Somehow those 250 trees caught fire, they didn't spontaneously combust.  While I'm a great fan of Mythbusters, their methodology is a bit shakey at times in the sake of selling entertainment.  Granted that's a small number of fires each year given the number of trees, but aside from not caring to deal with a dead, sticky tree, the remote fire hazard is simply one more reason for me to see the impracticality of it.  I don't think the fresh Xmas tree market has missed my contribution much the last 20-25 years.

[Gaspar]

The fire thing is way overblown. The actual risk is minuscule. There are 25-30 million fresh Christmas trees sold per year and only about 250 fires are started from trees. So if you have a real tree you are running a risk of about 100-120,000 to 1 chance of a fire. Your chance of dying in such a fire is almost two million to one.
http://www.christmastree.org/facts.cfm
http://www.orangevillage.com/pdf/Holiday%20Fire%20Safety%20Tips.pdf

And the fires aren't started by the lights either
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/db/science/christmas-tree-lights-and-house-fires.html

I wouldn't say the risk is "minuscule."  The speed and intensity of a Christmas tree fire is amazing.  I do agree that lights are not the culprit.  Most likely the tree's proximity to the fireplace or holiday candles is the culprit. 

We have a live tree every year, but we also demonstrate a great deal of caution because we know how easy they are to set alight, and unlike many flammable things in your home, it the tree catches you're not going to have any time to extinguish it before the room is completely involved (less than 10 seconds).

[RecycleMichael]

Why would you take the risk of having such a flammable item in your living room, especially within ten feet of a fireplace?

It reminds me of the stupid witch in the Wizard of Oz that had a bucket of stuff that would melt her just sitting in her house on the dining room table.

[Conan71]

Why would you take the risk of having such a flammable item in your living room, especially within ten feet of a fireplace?

It reminds me of the stupid witch in the Wizard of Oz that had a bucket of stuff that would melt her just sitting in her house on the dining room table.

Di-hydrogen monoxide.  It can be really hazardous stuff in the wrong hands.

[Red Arrow]

Di-hydrogen monoxide.  It can be really hazardous stuff in the wrong hands.

I hate the stuff.  It has to be cut with booze just to make it palatable.

[Conan71]

I hate the stuff.  It has to be cut with booze just to make it palatable.

[swake]

Di-hydrogen monoxide.  It can be really hazardous stuff in the wrong hands.

Have you joined the movement?

[custosnox]

when I was a kid we lived in the middle of no where out in the desert, so we burned our trash. I remember the one year my mom talked my dad into getting a real tree we burned it after Christmas.  That sucker went in nothin flat.  All these years later, the memory still impresses me. 

They used to have a Christmas tree burning every year here that I managed to attend once.  They got a lot of trees donated, piled em up high, dowsed em with gasoline (like they needed that), lit it, and ran.  Talk about a show, and lots of heat.  I think they stopped doing it after the ice storm because they put all the debri in the lot where they used to burn the trees at.

Swake, the increased danger isn't in the likely hood of the tree catching fire, but what happens on the chance that it does.  Lighting strikes are even rarer, but I don't see you going outside holding a metal rod up during lightning storms.