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How early can you get a real Christmas tree? I normally go to my parent's home for Christmas and they have a fake tree. We live near Houston, so a nice humid environment and we'll water daily. I don't want to get one and have it all brown and ugly on Christmas day, but I also don't want to be trying to do it like the night before. Thanks for help!
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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We almost always go the Friday after Thanksgiving to get ours, but we cut ours down at a farm. (We meaning my parents, brothers who still live at home, and my son and myself. My parents get a tree for their house, and I get one for my house). That's usually the first day most of the farms around here are open. As long as I water it every day, it's never brown by Christmas. I try to take it down the day after Christmas, by preference, but my parents have kept theirs until New Years before, and it's stayed green.
This year we went the "reusable" tree option, though a very cheap one. This is the first year I'll ever be going out of town for the holidays, and I don't fancy coming home to a real tree that hasn't been watered in several days. My mom swears it wouldn't be a fire hazard, since the lights wouldn't be turned on while we were gone, but I'm still not comfortable with the idea. Plus, real trees shed enough needles even when you water them. I'm not eager to come home after a very long drive (Phoenix to SA) and having to deal with what the real tree would leave behind.
We'll probably be going back to single-use trees next year though. I hope you enjoy yours!
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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You can get real Christmas trees with the roots intact (a "root ball"). They stay green and shed few needles. When you're finished with it, you plant it in your yard (or arrange to plant it in a friends yard)
I have a friend who's parents have a large collection of "old" Christmas trees growing in their back yard. That was one of their family traditions for as long as they had kids living at home.
If you live in a cold climate, you should plan to dig the hole before the ground freezes though! Posts: 692 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I don't know what it's like in Houston, but see if there are any Christmas tree farms in the countryside near where you are - where I grew up you can go and pick out your tree and if it's not over 6.5 or 7 feet tall usually they'll dig it up for you. That way it'll last longer and be healthier. Also, in a lot of places you can go in early December, tag the tree you want and have it dug up later.
It's what my family do every year. It's worth it for that fresh pine smell.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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When we lived in Montana, we cut our christmas tree Thanksgiving weekend and left it up well into January and it never dried out.
When we've bought commercial Christmas trees, it seems they start shedding needles before Christmas even when you put them up on Christmas eve. I think a lot of them get cut long long before they hit the stores.
I should also note that if you are heating your house, the indoor humidity is likely to be quite low even in a humid place like Houston. Ultimately the temperature of your house is much more important than the humidity. One of the reasons our trees stayed so fresh in Montana was that we kept our house quite cold. We had the heat turned way down about 58°F while we were at work and while we slept and around 65 °F for the few hours a day when we were home.
Also, Christmas trees don't ever really "turn brown" that I've seen. When they start to dry out, they shed needles like crazy but they stay green.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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I grew up in Houston and my family did live Christmas trees while my brothers and I were young. We usually went during the first week of December and they stayed up until New Years. I don't remember it shedding too much before Christmas but as soon as the holiday was over I swear it would start dropping needles like crazy. But we did have three dogs who were always crawling underneath it and pawing at the ornaments so they were probably responsible for knocking atleast some of the needles loose.
I agree that cutting your own tree is best. Besides, its alot of fun. Even my dad, who did most of the work cutting and hauling it to car, was sad when my mom decided to buy a fake tree.
Posts: 1733 | Registered: Apr 2005
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We have two little dogs and two little girls, so I imagine there will be a lot of shedding needles from that. Right now, we are using AC to keep the house at 78F. I can not even imagine 58F with a heater on. Thanks for advice. I am pretty excited about the whole real tree instead of plastic, though I guess we'll see how I feel when the house is covered in needles. Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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Right now, we are using AC to keep the house at 78F. I can not even imagine 58F with a heater on. 
