The battle of fake versus fir in the Christmas tree stakes seems to have been won by the real thing this year with more and more people choosing to spruce up their festivities with a traditional tree.

As people rushed to buy their trees over the weekend, retailers recorded one of their busiest seasons to date, with one garden centre selling a record two trees a minute at peak times on Saturday and Sunday.

And predictions are that this weekend will be just as busy as householders make last-minute preparations to prepare their homes for the last Christmas of the century.

Anthony Andrews, of Yorkshire Christmas Trees, which operates from Denholme's New Coley Nurseries, is quite literally gobsmacked by all the interest.

Not only has this season been one of the business's busiest years to date, he's also noticed a shift in buying patterns, with more people plumping to buy real trees, and the majority of those buying the non-drop variety.

Mr Andrews said: "This has been one of our busiest weekends to date - we've been absolutely inundated with inquiries.

"Not only are more people buying trees, they're also plumping for the better quality ones, such as the Nordman or Noble Fir, which don't drop their needles, unlike the pine and the spruce."

Although these trees are more expensive - a six foot pine tree costs around £18 compared to £24 for a Nordman or Noble fir - Mr Andrews reckons people are going for quality this year as they go all out to celebrate the millennium in style.

"People are saying it's the year 2000 this year, we're going to have a nice Christmas and new year and spend more on a tree," said Mr Andrews.

And having a unique tree means having a real tree.

"Once you've had an artificial tree for the second year, it loses the effect," continued Mr Andrews.

"Real trees are part of Christmas - getting an artificial tree out of your loft isn't.

"When you look at the green issue as well, fake trees are created by synthetics and plastics, whereas the real ones are purposefully grown and not farmed from forests."

Sandy Lane's Carlton Nurseries has also recorded a bigger interest in the non-drop trees.

Owner Peter Griffith said: "We've had an extremely busy weekend. We've already sold more than last year and hope to shift a lot more this weekend.

"People are tending to go for the non-drop variety more this year."

But while real trees seem to be winning the sales race, they face one serious contender for next year - the fibre optic Christmas tree!

Since the brightly coloured alternative came on the market three years ago, interest in fibre optic trees has steadily increased.

Andrew Walmsley, owner of ACW garden centre on Canal Road, said: "The fibre optics are booming - we've had a lot of interest from customers about them and we must have sold hundreds this year. They're really taking off."

And such was the interest at Wilkinson's, Kirkgate, Shipley, that the glittering Christmas tree alternatives sold out three weeks ago.

Assistant manager Mandy Nicholson said: "We started selling them in the second week of September and we must have sold thousands of them here before we sold out three weeks ago.

"They've now sold out in all of Wilkinson's 170 stores up and down the country. The interest in the fibre optics has been amazing, and we're still taking calls from people who want to know where they can get them."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.