Caring for Your Real Christmas Tree – Tips on caring for a natural Christmas tree so it lasts all season long! Even if it’s your first real tree ever!
Year after year when it’s time to start decorating the house for Christmas, Josh pulls out our Christmas bins from the rafters in the garage and starts piling them all into the house. . .including a humongous box that houses our artificial Christmas tree. He puts it together branch by branch (with a key) – each piece is color-coded, and it takes considerable time. It’s always a bit of a pain.
This year, we decided to try something different, and took the family out on an adventure to find our first REAL Christmas tree! I found a tree farm just a few miles from our house and away we went.
I made sure to read up on Christmas tree varieties before we left. I thought this chart was super helpful.
Christmas Tree Tip: Don’t forget to measure your space at home before you go out tree hunting. Take along a tape measure so you can measure the tree before you cut it down to ensure it will fit in your designated space. Oh, and remember to take a saw!
I was pretty certain we were on the hunt for a Fraser Fir or a Blue Spruce. That is, until we saw this beautiful white pine.
Standing on its own in a clearing, it just looked different from the rest – soft and full – almost fluffy. I knew the branches wouldn’t be as firm for hanging ornaments, but we loved it. We knew it was. . .the one.
Christmas Tree Tip: Give the tree a good shake before cutting it down to get rid of any dead needles that may be left inside. It’s normal for a tree to shed some needles when you shake it, but if it’s excessive, you may want to find another tree.
Josh sawed away and we waited for it to fall.
As it began to wobble, we yelled, “Timberrrr!”
And we carried it to the truck, got it wrapped up and headed home.
Christmas Tree Tip: Before bringing the tree into the house, make a fresh cut in the trunk of at least 1 inch and get it into water as soon as possible. Your fresh-cut tree will be thirsty. Ensure the bottom 2 inches of trunk is always immersed in water.
Pretty exciting, right? So, I bet you’re wondering why this is our first real tree. Why did it take us this long to convert from artificial to real?
I didn’t want to deal with “the mess.” You know what I mean? In fact, the #1 consumer dissatisfaction with live Christmas trees is needle drop.
Who wants needles all over their living room? Not me. I vacuum the house enough with a dog and two kids. I didn’t need anything else under our roof adding to the daily workload.
My change of heart came about after I ran across Miracle-Gro® for Christmas Trees when we were doing some shopping at Home Depot. Miracle-Gro® for Christmas Trees helps reduce needle drop (vs. water only) by keeping the tree hydrated.
There’s enough in this little bottle to last you all season long. All you need is 1 capful (2 teaspoons) of Miracle-Gro® for Christmas Trees for every quart of water added to your tree.
Let me tell you what. . .I’m really excited about having a real tree. And I just may be swayed to return to the tree farm next year – and quite possibly the year after that.
I can’t see through our tree this year like I always could with our artificial tree. Our real tree is so “fluffy” and full. And the scent? Well, the scent is just heavenly. I’m pretty much in love.
I can’t tell you how happy our family is to have our very own real Christmas tree in our home. The entire experience – from going out to find it and cutting it down, to decorating and watering it – it just makes me kind of proud. It’s pretty much the #BestTreeEver.
It’s an experience our family will always remember, so in addition to the photos I shared here, I captured a few of our moments on video, too! Join us on our adventure before heading out in search of your family’s perfect tree!
Christmas Tree Tip: For more Christmas tree care tips, check out miraclegro.com.
Miracle-Gro® for Christmas Trees is available at Amazon and many home improvement stores.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro. The opinions and text are all mine.
joannerambling says
December 2, 2016 at 2:22 pmI have never had a real Christmas Tree, my sister used to have one every year when she was with her first husband but not since they split.
Sara says
December 2, 2016 at 10:02 pmSo far we’re really enjoying the real tree, Joanne. I actually love the fact that after the Christmas season I won’t have to worry about storing anything either!
Karen Diemert says
December 2, 2016 at 4:16 pmWhen I was a kid (which is definitely a while back), my mom had a full sized flannel bed sheet with a hole in the center. When my dad brought the tree inside after it had been sitting in a bucket of water for a couple of days. Mom would center that sheet over the tree stand before they put the tree in. Once the tree was all leveled and screwed in, the decorating finished and
everything, she’d arrange that sheet to look like a snowy skirt. After
New Years she pulled the sheet out flat, the lights and decorations came off, they loosened the screws on the tree stand, pulled up the four corners of the sheet and took it back outside. The whole process was pretty much mess free until you shook out the sheet :-).
Sara says
December 2, 2016 at 10:00 pmWhat a wonderful tip! Thank you so much for sharing, Karen!