In my earlier days I always regarded Christmas trees with a degree of scepticism. They were something that grew silently over the years on vast estates, and the only labour cost seemed to be employing the local gamekeeper to stop anyone digging them up.

This view was strengthened when as a cub reporter I was writing a seasonal feature, and was taken out by an enthusiastic grower onto a windswept heath in the pouring rain to examine the merchandise.

If that was not enough, we tramped over the hills to the next site where in their serried ranks stretching to the horizon to my still untutored eye they looked all the same!

But I did learn something and to this day I have always carried a pair of Wellington boots in the back of the car.

Despite my misgivings, in those days the old Covent Garden was turned overnight into a luxuriant green forest. There was Christmas tree corner around Russell Street where prices were calculated by the foot, but dropped as the holiday approached.

The Journal received a plethora of small ads from unlikely and unusual sources so the house rule was always only accept the order with an accompanying cheque.

And then, like everything else the multiples moved in. For buyers used to neatly packaged, uniform products it must have been a nightmare, and years later I have a feeling it still is.

This was despite the arrival of the artificial tree, which has continued to take root, and the fact that the natural product has improved immeasurably.

There are now numerous varieties with non-drop properties, and clever netting machines that parcel trees up far better than ever before. But it is the sheer size of them that is the problem. At least, with most of the population now driving, or seemingly having access to a 4x4, there is less of a problem getting them home.

There is no doubt that the conifer originally introduced by Prince Albert is as much part of December 25 as turkey and mince pies. You only have to look at the number of column inches devoted to Christmas trees by the national media when a tree loss was feared because of the summer drought.

Sainsbury's press office estimates that more than six million real trees are sold every year, and the store aims to double its sales this year by offering the first on-line ordering service.

Love them or hate them ñ Christmas trees still represent a bargain.