8 Uses For a Christmas Tree After Christmas

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Christmas Tree on Cart

Putting up the Christmas tree is one of the highlights of the festive period. Having to take it down is depressing and a chore. Wouldn’t it be far easier if that lovely Norwegian spruce, that has been the focal point of your life for the last month (or longer if you’re really keen!), was going to be put to good use. Well, we have a list of practical things you can do with your tree after the holidays.

 

As a Tree

Christmas Tree on street

Sounds like a rational thing to do, but how on earth do you go about making a cut tree take root again? It’s not just a case of plonking it in the ground, but it’s not a task that’s only achievable by the likes of Monty Don or Charlie Dimmock. It’s quite easy and anyone can have a go. You’ll need to get some rooting hormone to boost its chances. For better luck, you should take cuttings from the tree stem, here’s how.

Snow Protectors

We tend to get quite harsh cold weather in January and February these days, so you can use larger twigs and branches from the Christmas tree to make little wigwam ice protectors for your less hardy plants in the garden.

Compost

There’s little you can’t compost (tea bags, vegetable peelings… even hair!), so why not mulch down your Christmas tree? It can help soil erosion on banks and retain moisture – great for the summer drought that seems ages away, but will come around quicker than you realise. You simply take a saw to the tree and get it broken down as much as possible, then spread the branches over the garden ready to decay and look pretty in the meantime.

Christmas Tree

Chicken Bedding

If you keep chickens, which a lot of people do these days, your old Christmas tree could provide some lovely deep bedding, which cuts down on the number of times you need to muck out the coop. Just add more cut up Christmas trees each month.

Door Mat

Strip the branches off the trunk of the tree and lay these out to form a living (for a time) door mat. The pine needles are great for getting mud off boots in the winter and the divine smell will waft into the house. This is a Finnish custom and they certainly know how to survive a proper winter.

Recycling

It’s not easy to get rid of a Christmas tree through the usual refuse methods. Putting it in your wheelie bin won’t make your binmen very happy. Yet people still just chuck their tree onto the street – is there a more depressing sight? Recycle for London www.recycleforlondon.com have a list of places to ethically dump your tree in London. Nationwide locations can be found at Recycle Now www.recyclenow.com.

Bird Feeder

Take the branches off the trunk of the tree, leaving little stumps (around 6 inches) on it for birds to perch on. Periodically smear these with some peanut butter and sprinkle them with bird seed. Also leave fruit, nuts or seed on the top of the trunk for them.

Fuel

Christmas Tree Recycling

Quite simply, wood can be burnt; so it makes sense if you have a wood burner and don’t fancy using the Christmas tree trunk for any of the other suggested uses here, you can always lop it up and burn it. The whole tree can be used, of course, as the smaller branches make great kindling. The downside to this option is that you will have to wait for it to season (probably until the next winter).

We hope you find this guide helpful! At Chessington Holidays we’re looking forward to seeing you (hopefully) in 2013.

How are you planning to reuse your Christmas tree?

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