Does Illinois Prefer Real or Artificial Christmas Trees in 2025?

Since I brought up the question, it seems only fitting that I go first in answering it.

My wife and I made the switch from real Christmas trees to an artificial tree about 15 years ago when we found that we were tired of hunting for the perfect real tree, paying too much for one when we found it, strapping it to the top of the car, dragging it in the house, constantly watering and picking up fallen needles, etc.

Our kids complained a lot about the switch, but since they weren't the ones who dealt with all of the things listed above, we ignored their complaints and have had the same beautiful, pre-lit Christmas tree ever since.

The question is, are we like most families in Illinois, or not?

The Discussion About Going With A Real Or Fake Tree Is Something That Happens In Most Illinois Households

Every December, the question pops up in living rooms and online. "Should we go real or fake this year?" And in Illinois for 2025, the answer is trending pretty strongly toward the plastic variety of trees.

Data from the American Christmas Tree Association shows that artificial Christmas trees dominate holiday decorating in the US, with about 83% of households planning to use a fake tree this season, and it's been that way for more than a decade.

That’s not just a coastal or southern thing, it’s a nationwide trend that we in Illinois feel too. Illinois has about 5.07 million households in total, according to Census Bureau figures. If we apply that 83% rate here (a rough estimate), that works out to roughly 4.2 million Illinois homes decking their halls with an artificial tree this year, and fewer than a million with a real one. (some households use both).

So, When Did Fake Trees Take Over The Christmas Landscape?

The shift didn’t happen overnight. Artificial trees began gaining serious traction in the late 50s-early 60s when manufacturing scaled up, and by the 90s they were mainstream. The convenience of a collapsible, reusable tree that comes pre-lit won a lot of fans, and has kept them ever since.

There’s still life, pardon the pun, on the natural tree side in Illinois. Local tree farms are still very popular.

As of October 2025, there are around 127 Christmas tree farms in Illinois, many of them family-run operations where you can pick and cut down your own tree. While state-level USDA data isn’t always broken out publicly in annual totals, the national picture (14.5 million real trees harvested in 2022, the most recent USDA census year) confirms real tree production continuing at a steady clip across the country.