10 Things to Do With Your Christmas Tree After the Holidays
What can I do with my Christmas tree after the holidays? Are there ways to reuse or recycle a Christmas tree when the holiday season is over?
Now that the festive season is over, these two are some common questions people are asking as they decide what to do with their Christmas trees after the holidays. And since you are here, you are probably wondering what is done with Christmas trees after Christmas as well. Well, wonder no more because this post will list several ways to repurpose your Christmas tree after the holidays.
Unlike other decorations, the cut Christmas trees that most people get for the holidays can’t be stored or preserved to be used again during the next festive season.
However, just like with Halloween pumpkins, that doesn’t mean that there are no other useful things you can do with your Christmas tree after the holidays. Keep reading to find out what to do with your Christmas tree after the holiday season.
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Things to Do with Your Christmas Tree After the Holidays
- Try to keep it fresh longer
Who says you have to take down your Christmas tree after the holidays? Other than the tree drying out over time and leaving a mess where it stands, there is no reason to part with your Christmas tree if you are not yet ready to do so. After all, it is aesthetically pleasing and brings good vibes to your home, and these should not be reserved for the festive season only.
If you don’t want to say goodbye early, one of the best things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays is to try to keep it fresh for longer.
Some ways you can do this include getting a living tree instead of a cut one, making fresh cuts at the base of your Christmas tree to facilitate water absorption, ensuring it always has enough water, and keeping your tree away from heat.
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- Replant it
Every year, millions of fir, spruce, cedar, and pine trees are cut down during the Christmas period around the world. And although most people do not condemn this practice, it is still deforestation and contributes to climate change, to some extent.
If you were more thoughtful and opted to go for a living tree this festive season, one of the best things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays is to replant it.
If you have a small tree, you could plant it in a container and take care of it like you would any other potted plant, and you could probably even use it again next time.
If you have a backyard or garden, look for a suitable spot to replant your Christmas tree, and remember to water it regularly. If you rented a live Christmas tree, make sure to return it to the supplier as healthy as when you got it.
- Make compost
Many people consider their Christmas trees useless after the holidays and throw theirs away. However, this is probably when your Christmas tree is most valuable because you can now reuse, recycle and repurpose it in so many other ways instead of using it for decoration only.
One of the good things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays is to make compost and use the nutrients to boost the growth of many more plants in your garden.
Recycling your Christmas tree after the holidays and growing your own food will help you save the money you would have used to buy fertilizer and foodstuffs.
- Use in mulching
Similar to making compost, the Christmas tree trunk, branches, and pine needles can also be repurposed after the holidays to make mulch.
Chop your Christmas tree trunk and branches into smaller pieces, feed them into a wood chipper, and together with the pine needles, use them as mulch if you have a garden.
Making mulch using shredded tree trunks, branches, and pine needles is one of the best things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays.
Not only will the mulch add nutrients to the soil as the materials decompose with time, but it will also help with water conservation and in preventing soil erosion.
- Turn it into firewood
People who live in cold areas, as well as those with houses that have a fireplace and those who are planning to have a bonfire soon, will enjoy repurposing their old Christmas tree as firewood after the holidays.
Not only will it spare the time you would have spent looking for firewood, but also help you save money as you won’t have to purchase firewood for a while.
Another advantage of allowing your Christmas tree to dry out to be repurposed as firewood and kindling is that it is sustainable.
By repurposing your Christmas tree after the holidays and making the most out of it, you won’t waste valuable wood.
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- Repurpose the Christmas tree for the wildlife in your backyard
If you are still wondering what to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays, you can always use it for the birds and other animals in your backyard in various ways.
Some good things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays include making a bird feeder using the trunk, creating a shelter for the wildlife in your backyard to use in the winter, or putting it outside and decorating it with various foods and fruit slices for them to eat.
- Donate your Christmas tree to zoos
Giving it away to a zoo is one of the best things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays.
Animals love Christmas trees as much as we do before they reach their expiry date after the festive season, and we throw them away with the trash.
The animals will love eating and playing with the Christmas trees, which are better uses than allowing the trees to go to a landfill. Therefore, when deciding what to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays, check if there are zoos in your area that accept donations of Christmas trees for their animals.
- Throw some branches into your fish tank or pond
Fish use plants and leaves as shelter and protection against predators. Thus, placing the entire tree or the branches in your fish tank or pond is among the good things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays.
If you don’t have a fish pond or tank and still want to recycle your Christmas tree after the festive season, check if your local area has programs for collecting the trees to throw into lakes in order to create reefs.
The complex branching of the coniferous trees will provide physical barriers against predation and help in improving the fish habitats overall.
However, before tossing the Christmas tree leftovers to the fish, make sure your tree is chemical-free and has no tinsel or flocking materials on it in order to avoid harming aquatic life while trying to do a good deed.
- Edge flowerbeds, the garden, lawn, and walkways
Christmas trees can be repurposed to make so many beautiful things to use in landscaping.
So, if you are still undecided on what to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays, cutting the trunk into disks and using these to edge your lawn, flowerbeds and garden is one of the ways you can repurpose yours instead of throwing it away.
Also, you could repurpose the Christmas tree branches to support vining and climbing plants in your garden and to insulate perennial plants during winter.
- Store it for future use
Even though most people go to Christmas tree lots and farms to purchase a ‘real’ tree, for their own reasons, some people opt for artificial ones instead.
The good thing about getting these fake ones is that they can be stored and used again during the next holiday season.
However, artificial Christmas trees are harmful to the environment because, most times, they have to be imported from China, are made of non-recyclable materials, and many usually end up in landfills.
So, this time, if you are unsure what to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays, just disassemble it and store it to be used again next season instead of throwing it away.
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Wrapping Up
Now you know what to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays. This year, avoid being among the many people who throw their Christmas trees into the trash and make a New Year’s resolution to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.
Old Christmas trees may even be more useful after the holidays because they can be repurposed, reused, and recycled in so many more ways than just decoration.
Since you have read this and gotten this far, you know the best things to do with your Christmas tree after the holidays and it is your responsibility to dispose of yours the right way.
Give your Christmas tree a second chance and try any of the above tips to enable it to live on after the holidays.
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I totally didn’t know you could rent a Christmas tree! That’s so much better than chopping them and killing them.
Right! More of us should start renting living Christmas trees instead of cutting them down. It is better for us and the tree!
Thank you so much for reading, Ang❤️