The online Christmas tree retailer Treetopia gathered figures from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Neilsen, Google Consumer Surveys, the American Christmas Tree Association and their own sales reports to compile a series of maps and charts that layout out people’s preferences on the subject.

Nationwide, the organization found, about 65 percent of households will put up artificial Christmas trees instead of real ones (about 18 percent).

Those who have artificial Christmas trees get their money’s worth, the researchers found, with 40 percent saying they keep trotting out the old fake tree for at least 6-10 years, and another 11 percent saying they keep using theirs for 21 years or more.

Even in Maine, where real trees are abundant, a fair amount of money is spent annually on artificial trees.

As you can see in the first of Treetopia’s two maps, Maine is among the darker shades of green, meaning celebrants here spent as much as 20 percent more on artificial trees than the national average.

(This could be because artificial trees are more expensive here, because more people are buying artificial trees here, or some combination of the two. It’s not immediately clear, based on the map.)

Nationwide, Treetopia found that most people — a total of about 50 percent — prioritize shape or realism when selecting an artificial tree. Height and price are the next important criteria, respectively, followed somewhat distantly by smell.

Predictably, green is the No. 1 color choice for artificial trees in every state.

What’s interesting is the second most popular artificial tree color in each state, which can be found in the second Treetopia map.

Mainers, like shoppers in many states, are perhaps inspired by visions of snow and choose white trees.

Arizona, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and Delaware are going through a goth phase, apparently.

And I’m frankly surprised they bother producing fake brown trees — when people say they want “realistic” artificial trees, I guess that includes trees that look like they’re dying.

The only states that stand alone in their color preferences are Montana and Hawaii, where people uniquely want orange and purple Christmas trees, respectively.

What about you? Do you prefer a real tree or an artificial one? If you go the artificial route, do you pick a color other than green? Leave your answers in the comment section below or share them on Facebook.

Featured main page photo by michellemc, used under Creative Commons license.