How to Care For a Real Christmas Tree
If you have a real Christmas tree, caring for it properly is crucial. Following these steps—including protecting it on the way home, and keeping it well-watered—helps the tree stay green and healthy, so it looks beautiful through the holiday season.
When spending money on a live Christmas tree for your holiday decor, you want to make sure you care for it properly, to keep it looking good for the entire holiday season. Caring for it in the right way will help reduce dryness and needle loss, keeping your tree healthy and green for a more extended period.
The following steps help to keep a live Christmas tree in the best possible health, so it remains beautiful until all the festivities are finished.
Getting the tree home unharmed is the first step in taking good care of it. Either transport the tree in an enclosed space of your vehicle or have it wrapped in plastic or netting if you are tying it onto your car. When attaching to the top of a car or placing it in the bed of a pickup, always make sure it is tightly secured. Place the cut end of the trunk facing forward, to minimize wind damage from driving.
After getting the tree home, if you can’t take it inside immediately, place the base of the trunk in a bucket with some water. Then keep the tree in a sheltered spot like on the porch or in a shed or garage.
Before attaching the tree stand, use a handsaw to make a clean cut on the bottom of the trunk, removing one or two inches of wood. Always cut straight across, never on an angle. Do not create a v-shape in the bottom, or drill a hole in it, unless your tree stand has a spike that helps stabilize the tree.
Using a small handsaw or pruners, cut all of the branches off the bottom 12-inches of the Christmas tree so it fits in the stand. Take caution not to remove any of the bark; the bark is where the tree’s vascular system is, so damaging it reduces the tree’s ability to take in water.
There are very few holiday disasters worse than a tipped-over Christmas tree, so it’s crucial to make sure it’s in the stand securely. If possible, ask someone to help you center the tree in the stand before tightening the eyebolts. Make sure the bolts are firmly pressed against the tree’s trunk, and only bite into the bark as little as is necessary to hold it steady.
Always make sure your real tree is watered with fresh, clean water; tapwater will suffice but distilled water is best. A well-watered living tree has better needle retention and aroma. When first put into the stand, expect a fresh-cut Christmas tree to take in a gallon of water within the first 24 hours, and then approximately a quart each day thereafter.
After bringing the tree indoors, give it a few hours or even overnight to adjust to the warmer temperatures before adding decorations. This acclimation lets dry needles fall and lets the branches drop down into their natural place, making it easier to decorate. Cold boughs are also more prone to breaking.
Avoid placement near heat vents, radiators, fireplaces, and space heaters when choosing a spot in your house to set up the Christmas tree. Also, try to minimize the amount of time it spends in direct sunlight. All trees, even well-watered ones, are highly flammable indoors.
If possible, drop the temperature of your living room—or whatever room the tree is set up in—a couple of degrees below normal. A slight drop in the ambient temperature helps reduce moisture loss from the needles, minimizing subsequent needle loss and the overall dryness of the tree.
When watering your Christmas tree, make sure to use plain tap water or distilled water. There are many commercial preservative products available to buy, but research has shown they don’t significantly improve the health and longevity of a cut Christmas tree. Also, avoid adding aspirin, sugar, or other homemade concoctions to preserve the tree.
If you have a water softener system in your home, either use distilled or bottled water to water the tree, or pull water from the line before it runs through the softener. The water softener adds large amounts of sodium, which will only hurt your Christmas tree; sodium accumulates in the tree’s trunk and blocks water uptake, making the tree dry out and die more quickly.
If the water in the tree stand has dropped below the bottom of the trunk, you should pull the tree from the base and, using a hand saw, slice another clean cut on the bottom of the trunk. When the water goes dry, the tree’s sap seals the open “wound” to prevent diseases from getting into the vascular system, but this also makes it so the tree can’t take in more water from that location.
Sometimes if left to sit for too long, the water in the tree stand begins to smell sour or rancid. Drain as much water from the base as possible and replace it with clean water. Do not add bleach to the water in an attempt to get rid of the smell. To keep the water from smelling bad, frequently water the tree until the water line is only slightly above the cut on the trunk instead of filling the stand as full as possible.
Once the holidays have passed, remove the lights and decorations and properly dispose of the Christmas tree. The risk of fire increases the longer the tree is left inside your home.