Five tips for Christmas tree maintenance

December is well underway and in a few days’ time my home is getting a Christmas tree. As I’ve mentioned before, a real tree, a live spruce, is a million times better than a plastic one, in my humble opinion that is. It smells better. It looks better It feels better. And since it’s recyclable, you don’t need to find a place to store it after the holidays.

The package deal of a live tree comes with one downside – the tree’s mortality. After a while, it will turn brown and shed its needles. What you want is a good looking, good smelling, live tree, through all of the holidays. You don’t want your tree to start dying on Christmas Eve. So I looked up the subject online and found some tips on tree preserving.

Keep the tree in water at all times. Put the tree’s foot in a bucket of water, or get a firm device designed for the purpose – it helps the tree stand up straight and it has a plate to pour the water in. Make sure the device is large enough for the tree foot.
The tree drinks a lot of water, so keep checking the water level a few times a day to see if the tree needs a refill and add water to the bucket regularly. This might sound like a lot of work, but it really pays off in the lifespan of the tree.
When you go get the tree, make sure it’s packed somehow. If it isn’t, the transfer and the getting in the front door will make it lose branches and needles prematurely. Get the tree in packed, put it in the bucket or the device, and only then open the package.
Before you put the tree foot in the water, cut an inch off the end of the foot. This will give the tree a fresh plane for absorbing water. But cut only from the end of the foot, not from the sides – this would dry up the foot and hinder the absorption process.
If you can, let the tree thaw in a place that’s warmer than the place you got it from, yet colder than the place you’re planning to keep it decorated. This will prevent a temperature change shock that could cause the tree to shed needles.

That’s basically it! I’ve been told that you can make the tree last for weeks this way, so you can have the same tree celebrate the beginning of December and Christmas time and Christmas holidays themselves, and even after. If the tips above seem like too much work for you, don’t stress out, you are allowed to use a plastic tree. Or leave out the tree altogether if you don’t like them.

But at least for me, the tree is what tells my subconscious that it’s Christmas time!