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The Central Decoration: Caring For Live Christmas Trees
Keep the stunning elegance and beauty of your tree going long past Christmas — or at least until the big day!
There are certain things that really mean Christmas to me: my grandmother’s ceramic Santa plate, my great-grandmother’s hand-painted tree skirt, and the tree itself. Although we’ve started using an artificial tree the last few years due to my allergies, there’s something about the fresh scent of a live tree that truly brings the season alive for me.
And while you can leave an artificial tree up all year without a worry, a live tree requires some very special care to ensure that it lasts at least a week or two — and for most of us, more like a month or more.
Christmas trees are a long-time symbol of the Christmas season, but improperly cared-for Christmas trees are unlikely to make it through the entire holiday season. Properly cared for fresh-cut Christmas trees, on the other hand, can last several weeks.
First and foremost, the key to long-lasting Christmas trees is giving them plenty of water. Many people have developed outlandish concoctions for Christmas trees, ranging from mixing things such as bleach, sugar, syrup, 7-up, or vodka in the water. I’ve even done it in years past!
