I’m not sure if this is the appropriate forum or if this is more MPSIMS or even IMHO, so please move as necessary and forgive the newbie.
As the lovely wife and I were repacking the Christmas decorations we decided to throw away our artificial, pre-lit tree. We’ve only had this one for two Christmases and it’s been a major disappointment with lights randomly burning out, the base warping and cracking, branches coming loose, etc. This was not a cheap tree either.
Anyway, we were discussing whether to go ahead and purchase another artificial tree while the Christmas stuff is still on sale and I threw out the idea of just getting a real tree next year. The only concern is how Sambora the Wondercat will react. He pretty much ignores the artificial tree, but we’re wondering how he might do around the real one.
So, anybody have cats and a real tree this year? Was it a big problem or did they treat it the same as they would a fake one? Anything I should know or watch out for if we do this next year.
Thanks!
After years of extensive observation I can confirm that real trees appear to be easier to undecorate than fake ones.
Over the years we’ve had many cats and many real trees (only lately opting for a nice artificial one).
None of the cats ever climbed or attacked the real trees. None of our cats ever paid much attention to the artificial one either.
The only problem with the real trees was that we used a stand that permitted us to fill with water to help preserve the tree. Naturally, despite nice fresh water in the cat dishes, they preferred to drink the water from the tree stand. We finally just put plastic wrap around it to keep 'em out.
I think it probably depends on the cat temprement and I bet younger, active cats would be much more of a problem. Here’s an example of the devastation cats can do to even an artificial tree: Tree Decorating 101 
My childhood kitty liked to knock off the shiny ornaments…
Thanks for the advice. And Tremor, thanks for the great link. Mrs. Theater and I were laughing out loud.