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I never wanted to go fake. I loved the smell of a fresh-cut evergreen tree at Christmas.
For years, our family made a big deal of the tree thing. We went down to one of those cut-your-own tree places in Pembroke or Kingston. You don't actually cut the tree yourself at some of those places - at least I didn't. There isn't enough liability insurance in the world to protect a farm that would allow me to cut my own tree.
No, we'd have a hot chocolate and sit in their warming shed while one of the workers cut the tree we selected, bundled it, and helped strap it to the car roof.
It was a day of jubilation, of course, when we brought the tree home. There was just one problem. I always started feeling lousy. It would start almost immediately after the tree came into the house - my sinuses would start dripping, there would be sneezing and coughing, and it would last until shortly after the tree left our home.
Enter my longtime allergist, Dr. Allen Lapey of Milton, an expert on pulmonary diseases who was recently honored for his work with cystic fibrosis patients; he has an office in Quincy and heads Massachusetts General Hospital for Children's Cystic Fibrosis Center.
I visited him one January more than a decade ago after another holiday spent coughing and trying to unclog my sinuses. He listened patiently to my complaints and then went over the list of things I'm known to be allergic to.
"Do you have a live Christmas tree?"
I nodded.
"You're allergic to it."
You could have knocked me over with one of those very small candy canes.
In a recent phone conversation, Dr. Lapey recalled that diagnosis and said there are two possible reasons why people with strong allergies react to trees: mold spores and scent.
"Pine tree pollen is not a source of allergens, and there's no way a dead tree in the middle of winter is going to be pollinating, anyway. So that leaves it up to mold spores - which can be found under the bark of the tree - and the tree's strong scent.
"Many people with allergies can be bothered by any strong scent - the smell of perfume, for example, can be a very potent irritant."
And just because blood tests or skin tests for an allergy to mold spores may not come up positive doesn't mean a person may not have a sensitivity to mold.
"Taking out the tree cures the problem," he said. "People just have to figure out if they're troubled enough to change the tradition."
As usual, Dr. Lapey was way ahead of everyone else. A story in the Daily Telegraph of England last month brought the news that doctors who were members of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, meeting in Dallas, had concluded that one person in every seven could be allergic to traditional Christmas trees.
Their study suggested that the evergreen spores from Christmas conifers could be responsible for a seasonal surge in wheezing, runny eyes, rashes, and headaches in allergy sufferers.
"It is difficult to get an exact handle on the percentage of the population that would be affected by Christmas tree exposure," said Dr. John Santilli, chief of St. Vincent Medical Center's Division of Allergy and Immunology, in Bridgeport, Conn.
However, he told the Telegraph that the incidence of sneezes and wheezes likely fell in "a range of 5 to 15 percent based on the fact that 30 to 40 percent of the population has some degree of respiratory allergy."
It has been more than a decade since I went fake. The kids are grown, and a real tree isn't as important as it once was. And every year I put up the fake one - cha-ching! - another $40 or $50 saved. And you still have to look really, really, really hard to see it's fake.
Sure, I miss the smell of the evergreen. But what do they make those aerosol cans for?
Rich Fahey can be reached at faheywrite@yahoo.com.
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
