Last week we talked just about Christmas trees – how to decorate, 2D versions and how to choose your tree. But what if you do not want to have your own tree? What if you want a real tree but do not want to deal with the hassle of getting one, decorating them and ultimately recycling one? What if the idea of owning a Christmas tree is enough?

In a time where we download so much of our music and film we live increasingly in a virtual sense – we do not ‘own’ the CD, we own the ‘idea’ of a CD – the music, but not necessarily the physical item itself. So could we do the same for other items?

There are quite interesting facts when it comes to ownership of items, such as the statistic that a power drill is only used for a few minutes on average for its whole life and the idea of collaborative consumption has risen in past years to become a very interesting concept. What if a community owned a drill that was shared, instead of us all owning a drill each? Would this be a practical way of owning an object as our lives become boxed into increasingly smaller spaces?

This kind of thinking has been applied to the Christmas tree by a few enterprising companies in the UK. Instead of buying, decorating then discarding a tree you can choose a pot grown tree which you ‘rent’ for the period of Christmas, then return it so it can be grown on for the next year. Some companies even allow you to rent the same tree each year, allowing you to become attached to it as an object, without having the ownership all year round.

So, the advantages are clear – someone else has the responsibility for the majority of the year yet you can still become ‘attached’, there are no trees being cut then discarded and storage for the rest of the year is not an issue. There are a lot of good points to the scheme. The carbon cost of transporting and caring for the trees would be an interesting maths exercise, but the fact that you are renting something does allow there to be a wider context of care – the Christmas tree should not really be a throw away object – it should be something we care about.

But will it catch on? Would we rent a tree? Quite possibly, as we do have a large pot grown tree which is used most years – wheeled in, decorated, enjoyed, wheeled out. And with care it survives to tell the tale.

So maybe consider renting a tree instead of purchasing one. You may be surprised that the virtual, temporary ownership is enough for Christmas and you have the joy of setting it free again in January.

(image via sxc.hu)