I’m not one to do a lot of decorating for Thanksgiving or Christmas—I usually expend most of my decorating energies on Halloween (us child-free people have an obligation to give your kids a good scare they’ll remember for years to come). However, I’m big on nature so I like to bring a bit of it indoors for the holidays. When it comes to Christmas trees, or solstice trees, or festivus trees, or whatever you prefer to call them, fresh is always best in my book. A fresh cut tree and some live garland around my entryway typically get me set for the season. I have my tree delivered by North Haven Gardens the day after Thanksgiving, or “Green Friday” as I prefer to designate it. Rather than fight shopping traffic, I stay in and decorate the tree.
For the last few years, I’ve gone with the Nordmann Fir as my fresh tree of choice. Its smooth, dark glossy green needles prove quite dramatic and they last through New Years. However, this year I’ve decided to go with a newer choice called ‘Burton Blue’. It’s a variety of noble fir that sports beautiful blue-green foliage. While Xmas trees are typically sheared into a perfect pyramidal shape, this year you can score a natural ‘open form’ of the ‘Burton Blue’. Remember the Charlie Brown tree? It’s like that tree, but much more stylish. These trees will offer up a more modern yet natural architectural look. I just have this feeling ‘Burton Blue’ is going to be the “it” tree for 2014.
If you’re wondering why I prefer fresh over fake there are several reasons. First, it’s just a more Eco-friendly choice. Fresh grown trees are a renewable resource, they produce oxygen while growing and habitat for wildlife. After the holidays they’re bio-degradable and can be recycled for mulch or compost. They don’t take more than 500 years decompose in the landfill into who-knows-what like the plastic trees do. They’re grow in the gold ole USA and they create American jobs.
More importantly, they smell nice.
TIP: Be sure that your fresh tree gets a fresh cut to the base of the trunk before you take it home and that you get it into water straight away. Use a natural preservative in the water and never let the water in your stand drop below the base of the trunk. Once it does the trunk will seal up with sap an be unable to take up new water. That’s usually what’s happened if your tree dries out before Christmas.
