One of the most frustrating things our industry faces is the way the news media scares consumers with stories about fires involving Christmas Trees. Often, news stories will report that a Christmas Tree “caused” a fire, when the simple fact is a plant can’t cause a fire. Fires are caused by heat, sparks, flames or electricity. A tree can get to the point where it is flammable and can be ignited, but so can most things in a home. The difference is none of those other things are news stories.

If someone is smoking in bed and their home burns down, do you blame the comforter? Just once I’d love to see a news story where the reporter says “We’ve had another comforter fire tonight...”

12/23 - Christmas Funnies
12/21 - Bird Flu Vaccine
12/18 - Contest Entry
12/16 - Cats, Shearing & Helicopters
12/15 - Don't Be A Fake
12/14 - Water Level; Politics
12/13 - Smelly Tree; Mail Order
12/12 - Interesting Questions
12/09 - Watering; Longevity
12/06 - Allergies
12/03 - Trees for Troops
12/01 - Hot Water for Trees?
11/30 - Colorants
11/29 - More Pets; Trees for Troops
11/28 - Pets & Trees
11/27 - Flocking
11/26 - First Blog Entry
  When to Buy a Real Tree
  Real Tree Care
  White House Tree; Grand Champions

The other thing that is frustrating is that people believe fake trees are flame proof because they have the words “flame retardant” on their boxes. The problem is, those are just words on a box. There is no testing lab or agency which publishes standards they must meet to use those words on their product. Just this week, a fake tree caught fire in hotel at Disneyland. Here’s a link to that story.

They should use a natural tree with a water stand next year.

The main blog contributor is Rick Dungey, who works as Public Relations Manager for the National Christmas Tree Association. Other people on the NCTA staff and members of NCTA will also contribute posts. Rick has answered media and consumer inquiries for NCTA for more than 9 years. You are welcome to send responses or questions to the blog, but be aware that not all posts will be made public and all will be reviewed prior to posting.

We look forward to your input – if you have a question or comment to share, send it to info@realchristmastrees.org

Please note: we use a fairly sensitive e-mail spam filter. Please try to use an obvious phrase in the subject line, such as "Christmas Tree Question" or "Blog Topic."

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