Oh my goodness! What an ordeal!

I hope it stays well-hydrated! (And upright.) 😄

You poor thing! I've had a few that didn't drink much water after the first few days.

We had one fall when the plastic stand cracked. I lost a few ornaments from the top of the tree--Old World Christmas German ornaments, a baby's first Christmas painted egg, and an ornament older than me that had belonged to my mother. That one hurt the most.

My gosh, you've had some bad luck! We haven't had any ordeals, but just yesterday we pulled the tree back out of the stand - fortunately, it was still undecorated - because it hadn't taken up any water overnight after setting it up. We gave it a fresh cut and it was better able to drink its water today.

I have heard about the wonderful Krinner stand. We’ve been using this one from my parents’ house and have fewer problems than with our old stand. It’s really heavy! and with four feet it doesn’t tip. Ours actually looks better than this, more solid with good welds.

We have only had a couple of tree disasters. One Christmas, my cousin’s daughter showed up with a boyfriend. Never did catch his name, never saw him again, but he was at the dinner table in the living room (12 in the LR, 12 in the dining room). He was at the end of the table. All of a sudden he leaps up, and catches the tree before it loses more than one ornament. It’s like he was sent to save the tree.

The other disaster, this was more weird than disaster, but the potential was there. About a week after we set up the tree, little black moth-like flies emerged! They kept coming, we kept swatting. They thankfully had short lives and were done by Christmas Eve, but gee it was just weird.

One year, we put up an artificial tree and just couldn't get it to stand up straight, so I wrapped bricks with gift wrapping paper, placed them under the tree and attached them with gold wire to the tree trunk to correct the lean. We had no trouble the year before with the same tree. We bought a new tree the next year.

I love my Krinner stand, too! Since my husband died many years ago, I've put up the tree solo (I go to a tree farm and cut one each year, but the past few years my son has wielded the chain saw for me, as I'm getting more mobility challenged), so that stand has saved me many frustrations.
The only fiascos I can recall are one year early in our marriage, our kittens would not stay out of the tree. We were renting a mobile home (limited options when you have to live in the boonies for work) that had that awful, cheap fake wood paneling in the living room. We ended up winding twine around the trunk in a couple of places and nailing it to the paneling to keep it upright. The other fiasco was when my son and I cut 3 trees at a tree farm (one for him, one for me and one for another friend) and he loaded them in my pickup, but I didn't notice he'd loaded them with the trunk facing backward. So when I was driving, the wind caught the boughs and apparently blew one of the trees out of the truck. We got to his house to unload and there were only 2 trees. I felt terrible and kept worrying that a tree might have blown out onto a car behind me. I gave the 2 trees to them and have another friend who owns an over grown tree farm and he cuts the tops out of some of the trees each year to use as Christmas trees. They aren't as full as I prefer, but I settled for one of his free offerings. I since have taught my son how to place them in the truck and we also tie them down now.

Wow, 2Katz, what a pain. But you did the right things--- no way it could go 19 days without water. Oh well! It sure looks pretty!

Im on the fence about getting a tree. My grandnieces were here this past weekend and since they have made their visit, im not sure anyone will be around to see the tree! Ill probably end up getting a small one. I bought a Krinner stand a couple years ago and that thing is amazing. Too bad it doesnt make a fresh cut!

No real fiascos I can recall other than the grumpiness of getting the tree into those screw type stands. My cat used to climb the tree but i could haul her out once she reached the top. When we were small, my brother tried to climb the tree and the whole thing fell over onto me. No harm except broken ornaments and tinsel in my hair.

Wow 2katz! That's a lot to deal with!

We haven't had too many tree disasters, outside of many many years ago, we had several rambucious cats who would knock over the tree. We resorted to using anchor screws and twine to secure the tree to a wall. Helped, but the rascals still tried their best to cause a big crash lol.

Our biggest and most memorable was a few years ago, and I've wrote about on this website, where we got the prettiest noble fir and a couple of weeks after setting it up, hundreds of spiders emerged from their hidden sprouting devices and populated the tree.

Being a certified spider-phobe I went full take no prisoners on this tree in full Zena warrior mode. My dd was frozen in fear and there I was telling (yelling) her to spring into action already and help me! I was so not happy with that surprising development I demanded we never have a real tree ever again. Dh, being among the most stubborn people I've known, put the kabosh on each suitable fake tree I presented. We still get a real tree, but I swear to the heavens I will throw any tree that is a spider hatchery in the future straight out the window with all the lights and ornaments still on it. I will!

Well at least when we get a tree here, it's been frozen outside for a while so have never experienced pests emerging from the tree. When we first started getting a tree again, I had (and still have) two cats that had never experienced a Christmas tree in our house. One of the reasons I put the tree up at the lake cabin is that I had a good place for it where I could anchor it to the wall which I was sure I'd have to do. Surprise, surprise - the cats have no real interest in the tree - even the troublemaker. She comes around to take a look at it when we first get it and quickly loses interest.

Omg, you have definitely have had some tree adventures.

Our “live” trees always worked out well with the exception of some drying out very quickly, scary dry. We moved to faux trees when we thought my son was having an allergy problem with the live tree. We kept on with our faux tree with fresh greenery on our mantle for a few days around the holiday, it was just so nice to have it around for awhile and not be worried that the tree would somehow spontaneously go up in flames.

Dee -So glad that you were able to score your rabbit. Understand how nice it is to have sentimental favorite ornaments, I have a Santa that I chose to be hung on my kindergarten tree, way too many years ago.

Back in the early eighties, I made some bread dough ornaments that were coated with some type of finish. One day we went out and when we returned, the tree was sideways on the floor. Our bassett hound had pulled all the dough ornaments off the tree and buried them in sofas and chairs. I guess that’s what happens when you have a scent hound.

@ginrummy53, that's hysterical. Poor pup probably thought he was helping you.

Wow…I’m so impressed you did that!! i would have been weeping about having to do it all over again.😩😂

We’ve had some absolute sh**show, horror stories with our real trees throughout the years. 😂 I could write a novel. Suffice it to say that I ascribe to the ”if bigger is better, GIANT must be best,” theory of tree purchasing. One thing i learned the hardest of ways…if you want a tree 10’ or bigger…you need a hoss of a stand. Bowling’s Last Stand has, so far*, done the trick. With both kids away at college this fall, dh put his foot down on the 14’ tree I wanted. He said he needs Ds for that, and wouldnt attempt it with just me. 🙄🤬 I sulked, then petuantly picked a 10 footer with a nice shape. After some salty language…we got it in (praise to the double front doors!) and upright. It’s slurping up water like a champ. 😂

* terrified to jinx it! 😬

I have only had two Christmas trees, both real trees that I chopped down in the forest (with a permit). My brother does this every year and I chopped down trees for myself twice before deciding it was just too much hassle (and a bit sad). Both times I severely underestimated the size of the tree when it was standing in the forest. Once we got them home we realized they were too tall even for our vaulted ceilings and had to lop off some of the bottom and they were still the biggest Christmas trees I'd ever seen in a house. Not to mention the effort it takes to drag a huge tree through the snowy forest to get it back to the truck. I have to say the experience of "Christmas tree hunting" as I call it is far more fun for me than actually having the live tree. So now I just opt to join my brother when I can to help him "hunt" for and chop down his Christmas tree. My house has no tree (and no children to be disappointed about that).

Mine by December 30th last year! Needless to say, we got a new one for this

year!

Bowling’s Last Stand, that’s what we have from my Dad. it’s great.

I would have been so mad, I would have wanted to toss tree to the street! Kudos to you for decoratng it twice.

Some funny stories here. The only tree castostrophe I've had was before I married. Mom brought me a tree for my apartment. Withing a week, all the needles had turned brown and started dropping off. I couldn't turn the lights on, and when I decided to haul it outside, there was not a needle left. It was pitiful.

When our three were little, we would tie fishing line to the trunk near top of tree and tie to an eye hook nearby. Our cats would always get underneath the tree but never tried to climb.

@LynnNM - that is so funny - a striped tree! I have always been skeptical of pre-lit trees knowing how unreliable Christmas tree lights are. I envision a perfectly good tree that is done for because those crummy lights stop working.

I’m sure I’ve told this story before but here it comes again.

We had a live tree our first year married. The Sunday after xmas, Dec 26th or 27th, my husband left for church. I decided the tree was dry and painfully sharp, and xmas was over so I undecorated it, boxed everything up, and put the tree out on the porch until tree recycling day. When my husband got home he said my parents are on the way over to see our tree.

There it is on the porch, would they also like to look into the boxes of ornaments to get an idea about how it was decorated? 😆 I don’t remember them ever coming over again just to see any of the few trees we put up.