Will there be a Christmas tree? With just a few days to go before the festivities, the debate has been settled in most French households, but the decision hasn't necessarily been made without controversy. Nor without a few reversals. For Mélisande Ferry, for example, the subject crystallized one Sunday in late November, at lunchtime. Sitting around the family table, the two children of this librarian from Toulouse, ages 9 and 13, blurted out a question that would sweep away her convictions about decorating the living room in December: "Is it bad for the environment to celebrate Christmas?"

For the past two years, the 44-year-old mother had stopped buying a "real" Christmas tree. "My husband, who is very involved in the fight against global warming, has wanted to give up buying Christmas trees for a long time," she said. "In fact, he'd even prefer it if we didn't celebrate Christmas anymore. The debauchery of decorations, gifts and food weighs on him." But as long as the children believed in Santa Claus, she negotiated hard to keep the family ritual alive. So as not to throw away the tree after a month, she even tried a potted tree, to be replanted after the holidays. Except that, lacking a garden, the tree dried out before it could be replanted.

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