Real or artificial?

My dear wife is not a demanding person. I am aware of her preferences, though, and try to make a concerted effort to fulfill them. As she does for me. It's marriage.

There is one thing about which she is insistent. We've been a couple for 37 years, and she's always wanted this. What does she want? A live tree at Christmastime.

"Sweetheart, if we buy a good artificial tree, it will have paid for itself in three to five years!" (She doesn't care; she doesn't want it.) "No more going out into the cold and cutting down a tree!" (This argument is a non-starter for my spouse. Going out into the weather, trudging through the elements, climbing under a pine tree with a saw -- all of this is part and parcel of the season.) "Honey, no more pine needles!" (No problem. Brooms, dust pans and vacuum cleaners will do the job quite nicely.)

Argument made. Argument lost. I concede.

Apparently, in many American households, we are the exception that proves the rule. Sales of artificial Christmas trees are booming -- according to a tree growers' task force report, up more than 650 percent in the past 40 years. The market share of fresh-cut trees is falling every year. Seeing their declining metrics, tree growers have been begging Washington to help. The answer? A new tax to pay for a promotional campaign pushing tree lots and nurseries. (Of course, the U.S. Department of Agriculture calls it a fee or a surcharge.) The USDA, in an initiative passed in the 2014 Farm Bill, is adding a fee to the price of every fresh-cut tree sold. A 15-cent surcharge.

Advertising for "fake" trees has much to do with declining fresh-cut sales, or so say tree growers. This new marketing drive has to be paid for and the surcharge on live trees is the revenue stream.

One grower, grateful for the legislation (and the surcharge), thinks if Americans understood the environmental benefits, they'd return to live trees in droves. A live tree, once discarded at Christmas, goes back into the habitat and nature recycles it. Artificial trees don't last forever and once they're discarded, they end up in a landfill.

I'm not sure any of this matters to my partner. My wife wants a live tree because it's part of Christmas, pure and simple. The religious argument is difficult to make for a tree -- whether live or artificial. The cross at Golgotha is sometimes referred to as a tree: "And can it be upon a tree, the Savior died for me." True, the cross was constructed of wood and we all know the origin of wood. But this is an Easter reference. The tie to Christmas is harder to see.

Protestant reformer Martin Luther introduced a tree at Christmas to churches in Saxony (now Germany) in the 16th century. The first tree in a U.S. church is said to have been in Cleveland.

The environmental argument is potentially compelling, the religious argument is, at, best elastic. What it all comes down to, I suppose, is what makes Christmas come alive for each of us. Twinkling lights, parties, egg nog, a Nativity set -- and for some of us in certain marriages, a live, fresh-cut tree.

It's the only thing my wife truly demands, so, "Yes, dear, I'll grab the twine and the saw and meet you at the car."

Happy Thanksgiving and may I wish you all an early Merry Christmas.