Oh, Christmas Tree

If you have a live Christmas tree, it’s probably one of sixteen species of fir, spruce, pine, cypress or cedar. Many people prefer firs for their soft needles, but firs dry out quickly and drop their needles fast. One year our tree dropped its needles before Christmas!

One species, the Scots or Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris), doesn’t lose its needles even when it’s completely dry. I’ve seen Scotch pines put out for trash collection in January that looked as if they were freshly cut. There’s a down side though, as described at The Spruce:

You’ll want to wear gloves when decorating a Scotch pine since its needles can be sharp as pins!

The 10 Best Christmas Trees You Can Buy — The Spruce

If the tree was sheared closely there’s no room to insert your hand or an ornament. Ouch, Christmas tree!

However Scotch pines have this advantage, and so do other live trees: If you feed birds in your backyard, place your old Christmas tree near the feeders to provide winter cover for birds.

(photos from Bugwood.org and Wikimedia Commons; click on the captions to see the originals)

2 thoughts on “Oh, Christmas Tree

  1. Hi Kate,

    Merry Christmas to you and all of your followers.
    Did you catch the story over the weekend about a family in Georgia that had a live owl living in their Christmas tree that had been fully decorated inside their home for about a week? No animatronics for that family. I guess the owl was quite content.
    Enjoy the holiday season!?

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