Ep 24 - Is a Real or Fake Christmas Tree Better for Allergies?
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Kara: If you love decorating for Christmas, but hate the sneezing, wheezing, and itchy eyes that sometimes follow, this episode of Allergy Actually is for you. We are breaking down the biggest allergy triggers, hiding in holiday decor, and how to tackle them without losing the magic. We're talking trees, wreaths, scarlets, fragrances, and those dusty boxes of ornaments, all of it. With easy swaps to keep your home merry and breathable.


Real vs. Artificial Trees: The Central Debate
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Kara: Oh, it's my favorite time of year. I got my holiday blanket here, all cozy. But it can be a landmine for those living with allergies and other environmental sensitivities. So let's dig in the place where, you know, many of us that celebrate Christmas, you know, really zone in on is the tree. Is it better to have it real? Is it better to have artificial? Let's talk through the pros and cons.


The Real Culprit on Christmas Trees (It's Not Pine Pollen!)
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Amber: I think one myth about trees is that people think if they, when they're around a live Christmas tree indoors, if they have any kind of reaction, let's say like runny nose, drippy nose, sneezing, coughing, whatever they think they're allergic to the pine tree, whatever that might mean, the pollen, the what are they called? The little cones, the all the parts of it. But that's usually not the case. That's because trees aren't pollinating in the wintertime, at least pine trees. And usually it's because of other reasons. So like what's one of the main reasons we see people having reactions to Christmas trees?

Meaghan: Mold.

Amber: Yeah, and that can even, that can be from real trees that have been brought inside, or trees that have artificial trees sitting in our basements.

Kara: Yeah. I think, you know, the other thing that comes about is the idea of fragrance, right? So the real tree does have that natural cedar pine scent. You're not being exposed to artificial fragrance, but those, you know, natural essential oils essentially, do still have a smell. It is a maybe a little bit more eco-friendly in that it's lower VOCs than many artificial trees, artificial trees that are made from plastic, you know, do have that potential, it's less common than it once was.

Amber: And we would consider that a non-allergic response because it's not something that's causing an allergic response. And really allergic versus non-allergic, those are semantics that have to do with underlying, you know, the way that your immune system is processing what's in your environment. It's not anything you would really like know from the outside. You're still feeling bad, but it has more to do with maybe like prevention and treatment.


Why Attics & Basements Cause a Reaction
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Meaghan: I have a lot of issues that come up personally. Whenever I go, we keep our decor in the attic, and right now I unfortunately do not have a beautiful finished attic. So I walk in and there's like crap everywhere and there's layers of dust and probably like oh, insulation that like probably I should not be around, but yet I do and I go and I dig up around there.

But I feel very gross whenever I get done doing that. And at the end every year I'm like, okay, self. Number one, we're going to wear a mask next time and we need to remember how awful we feel because we need to do that. And so every year I forget or think to, this year will not be the year. It's always the year. I'm always a mess. So, I need to remember that for myself. But that is a big one that a lot of things are very dusty. And this comes up as well with, we talk about non-allergic versus allergic rhinitis and non-allergic rhinitis comes from a lot of irritants. And so what I'm dealing with up in my attic that is generally very dry. And, I don't have, it's not very moist up there. It's not very humid and I don't have a lot of cloth items up there. They're largely, like things like my literal Christmas tree, but it's not dust mite I'm dealing with. It's the stuff that's in the air from where it's stored. And so I have to deal with that, not only up there, but then bring it down and try to wipe it off.


The Best Way to Dust Decor (A Practical Solution)
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Meaghan: And my best advice to someone else would be to try to do that outdoors if you can. That way you're not stirring everything up and doing it in the house. And every now and then, if I get something that is small enough, I can take outdoors and dust off out there. I use a microfiber cloth to wipe everything off, a little damp, but you can't always do that, right?

And so that's, that is just something to think about that wearing a mask and trying to take things outdoors to do your off dusting, we'll say as best you can where it's not gonna recirculate indoors.

Kara: And if you can't, wear a mask.

Amber: Yeah. And giving yourself permission that you don't have to do the full extent of decorating every year, you know? If there's one year, like I'll use, we're talking about decorating, but I'll use Christmas cards as an example. I love to send out Christmas cards to family and friends but there was one year that life was just too much that year. And I thought, you know what, even though it's a little bit painful to not do it, and some of my friends and family might think they somehow got cut from my list, you didn't. I just couldn't pull it together that year, and it's okay. Like you normally put up 10 trees and this year you only can handle putting up one, that's fine or not.


Permission to Skip: Taking the Stress Out of Decorating
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Meaghan: Yeah, that is okay. No one's judging you. No one's coming in your house grading your holiday decor, which, you know, I have sort of felt like that before. And I would think, who am I doing this for? It's just me. You know, I mean, my family loves it, but you know, I have a house full of little boys.

They don't notice in detail all of that that we do. And if it makes you feel any better, I have an entire pile of like 200 Christmas cards that I had made with our family picture in 2017, and we still have them all. Like I don't think I've ever actually sent out a Christmas card. Every now and then I'll have good intentions, but like the mask, I just don't quite get to it. One other thing that is something to think about is as well at my house, I love glitter and shiny stuff. And so in addition to that, a lot of my trees I use for decor have a lot of flocking. And so I also have to be cautious about that with my breathing. And then when other people are coming over with pets that there's all these irritating things.


Flocking, Glitter & Clean Air Strategy
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Meaghan: So after I put all of my decor up, we actually have to clean quite a lot and make sure the air filters are going full-time just to make sure that we get all of that stuff that we stirred up sort of out of the house and that we're not continuing to sort of breathe and wallow in it for the next month.

And you guys are, who decorates here, just out of curiosity, before Thanksgiving or after Thanksgiving?

Amber: After.

Kara: We have swung one way and the other. So, we did very early this year in part 'cause there was a rainy day. We got an early snow and frankly we had a sick kid at home on a Sunday and we're like, let's do this. Part of it is we have an artificial tree. So, you know, growing up we would always wait. My dad's birthday is December 13th, so we would always wait until after his birthday to go get the live Christmas tree one, so the tree wouldn't die and be a fire hazard.

And two, so the dad's birthday was his birthday, and not just like Christmas extended. So now as I'm saying that out loud, my son's birthday is actually December 12th, and I'm like, oh, Ollie, sorry bud.

Meaghan: You're the Christmas baby. We love fall so much that we do decorating after Thanksgiving. And one of my best friends is a designer and so she comes and helps me do Christmas every year since I have moved into this house, which has now been about 10 years ago or so. So it's a super fun fest of time, but ours is always after Thanksgiving. And something else I wanna ask you guys, so you talked about now you have an artificial tree, Kara, but you grew up with a real one. What about you, Amber?

Amber: We've kind of gone back and forth, but the last few years we have used artificial. Funny personal story, when we moved into our current home, our friends who we bought the home from had a little bit of a collection of artificial decorated trees from a local fundraiser. So our town would have this fundraiser every year where they would auction off pre decorated trees.

And just over the years they had purchased several. And when we moved in, they were moving further away, so it was kind of difficult to take the trees. So they were like, we're just gonna leave the trees. So there's one that I keep, like, you know how when you walk into a house, sometimes there's a coat closet on either side? So there one of the coat closets in our house. I just leave a tree in there all year round because we don't really need new coat closets. So after Thanksgiving I just open the closet and pull out the tree. It's already decorated. Plug it in, it's lit. It's like actually kind of nice.

Meaghan: I love it. 

Amber: That was a long answer to, we now use artificial, but I do love real trees. And maybe one day we'll go back to that.

Meaghan: Yeah, what a fun thing. So at my house, I, I love the smell of a real tree, but I prefer artificial. And this was proven again, we've kind of gone back and forth through the years with whatever and we were in the mood for. And when we moved here, my husband Jay was like, "We have to have a real tree." And I was like, "Okay, let's try it." Well, I didn't remember that no matter what happens, real trees like, they don't maintain their strength of their branches. And my memory of our first Christmas here is literally these, at least twice a day, a sound of some sort of ornament, falling and shattering.

Kara: Oh no.

Meaghan: Because the branches would like slowly go down. And so I was like, never again. We will never, ever, never again. We'll never do that. So yeah. Anyway, so we are definitely now, an artificial tree, but I do get to keep it upright all year up in the attic, but we don't keep it decorated because the transport would like break everything, but that is very cool.

And my grandmother did that, by the way. She eventually progressed to just keeping the tree in the front window and just plugging it in during Christmas. And it was there, it was there year round.

Kara: I love.

Meaghan: So don't, don't become that person.

Amber: Any final thoughts on Christmas decorating?

Meaghan: No. Have fun. Wear a mask if needed.

Kara: Yeah, and, and I think just taking the stress out of it, you know? And if you like it, great. Enjoy it. And also, if you need to take a year off or you know it's not gonna work, then that's okay too. Let go of kind of those preconceived expectations and stop shoulding all over your life. Alright, well thanks for spending time with us today. Holiday decor really should feel magical, not make you miserable. With a little intention you can enjoy the season without the sniffles. So have a bright, calm and symptom-free holiday season. Until next time, Allergy Actually. 

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