Picking a good tree isn’t guesswork. With a few checks in the shop or in the grower’s yard you can avoid a bare-looking tree by Boxing Day.
Pick The Right Species
Not all real Christmas trees are the same and will last for different amounts of time. The Nordmann fir is known for holding its soft needles for weeks and dropping very few. The Norway spruce on the other hand has a classic sharp smell of a Christmas tree and is generally cheaper to buy than a Nordmann. However, the Norway spruce will drop its needles more quickly than others once they have been cut and brought inside.
Measure Your Space First
Work out how much space you have, including how much of the ceiling you can afford to take off with the tree’s top plus the stand plus any topper you’ve got. Then work out the width of your door, hall and turns – a 7ft tree sounds fine but can be a problem for houses with small doorways and tight turns.
Check For Freshness
Check for freshness. The whole tree should feel like fresh cut greens. Try bending a few of the needles between your finger and thumb. They should flex and then come back to their original shape. Run your hand down the length of a branch firmly. If you get a lot of needles to fall off then the tree is not fresh enough. Look at the trunk of the tree. A recently cut tree will have a pale coloured trunk with lots of resin oozing out of the cut ends. An old cut trunk will be dry and start to grey off at the cut end. See also Real Christmas Trees Leicester.
Check The Trunk And Stand
Stand the tree up to check for any lean. Make sure the trunk will fit your tree stand and get the seller to re-cut the trunk of the tree as close to home as possible. Many sellers will do this for you in the car park as a matter of course. A stale, sealed over base is one of the main reasons trees dry out early so it’s worth asking for a fresh cut.
Settle It In Properly
In order to keep your tree as fresh as possible, avoid placing it in warm areas such as hallways for prolonged periods of time. Instead, store it in a cool shed or garage until you are ready to put it up. If you buy a tree that has been cut for more than a few hours before purchase, it is essential to cut a couple of inches off the base as soon as you get it home and place it in water as soon as possible. This area of the tree will quickly form a seal if left and will cease to drink. This simple action is said to have the biggest impact on the length of time a real tree will last once it has been brought into your home, according to the majority of Christmas tree growers.
Buying a real Christmas tree from a Leicester grower or from a local lot is also often far easier than buying from a supermarket and asking the questions above and seeing the trees they have for sale, many of which will have been cut in the week leading up to Christmas.
All you need to do is purchase a good tree in the first place and it will last till New Year.
