Festive Essentials?

I was listening to a podcast or program, possibly BBC wake up to money where renting your christmas tree and christmas jumpers and other stuff is now gaining popularity within the M25.

Apparently the rented trees are bare rooted, delivered for a set period then collected, returned to the field and replanted.

People can get the same tree year after year and even give them names.

You can even rent all the baubles and decorations.

The program mentioned the number of trees that end up in landfill, and it was quite staggering.

Lidl also do a Xmas jumper with the lidl name repeated often in the pattern.

I don't know about aldi/lidl but the profits from the screwfix Xmas jumper go to the screwfix foundation

That's quite a good idea.

A lot of people in flats probably don't have storage space for that sort of thing.

I always feel a bit sorry for the trees that are killed pointlessly at Christmas.

I know some people will say the same about turkeys, but at least we usually eat them.

Owain

I was in Kew one January a few years ago and saw trees dumped outside houses waiting, I assumed, for the local authority to collect them, a practice that I thought can't have been unique to that area.

Here in MK we also have at least one charity collecting them.

nib

I remember reading that in New York the trees are usually out as refuse/garbage by 26 December.

...and what about all those in the Christmas tree industry ? Christmas trees don't just appear they have to be planted, looked after, cut down, transported,sold etc etc all these people on the dole. For what is a crop, if they weren't used they wouldn't be grown, better to live one to two years (I know nothing about how long it takes a Christmas tree to mature enough that it can be used)than not to exist at all. Apparently used Christmas trees can be donated to Zoos etc as snacks/fodder for some animals, apparently an elephant can munch through four or five medium size ones in one 'sitting' .

If you live in the right area, The Forestry Commission sell off thinings from their conifer forests quite cheaply. When I needed a 15ft tree, that was the only place to get one and it cost the same as a 4ft one in the shops.

Up here they’re collected to create sand dunes.

Tim

Very little eats Xmas trees.

What happens to a tree, may depend on the condition it arrived in.

Here, the trees do best, if when they are cut Dec.1 on the farm, they are stored at below 0C. This helps preserve them, so when you bring it into the house (and warm it up), the needles are not already falling off the tree. Part of the unpacking, is testing a few needles for "condition", so you know what to expect.

If it's dropping as soon as you get it, you might well be ejecting it on the 26th. Not all areas of the continent, are thermally suited to Christmas tree storage.

You should add water to the stand-pot, as it will still be respiring and it will "drink water" from the pot when the tree warms up, until the flow stops after some number of days. This is part of what keeps the needles fresh. The tree can drink so fast, the pot can run dry before top-up the next morning.

And while there are various suggestions about "things you can do when putting it up", that's about all it needs. If it is already shedding needles, "no amount of prayer" will reverse that :-) We tried various things, to no good effect.

If you can't be assed to deal with a natural tree, that's why we have artificial trees. Then it's a matter of taking it apart carefully, and stowing in the loft, for next year.

The number of trees put out on Collection Week here, is quite small. Last year, maybe two trees out, on my end of the street. If you have a large family, there's more interest in all of the effort that goes into this.

Sometimes, the tree you get, just isn't straight enough, and then you need the "structural engineering team" to come in and secure it :-) I always got a kick out of the ropes and twine and so on, used to keep a pesky tree from falling over. "Well, maybe we could nail it to the ceiling.")

Paul

Apparently it is possible to rent xmas trees, and even get the same one back next year. A summary of the various options and their cost and/or carbon impact can be heard on the Radio 4 "Sliced Bread" programme:

#Paul

I had a look at goodelf, they will rent or sell, a 2ft tree is more expensive to rent than a 7ft one is to buy, go figure?

Seems to me not implausible given the extra cost of delivery they mention* plus the cost of collection. But also possibly an element of "those who are willing to pay extra to be green can probably be screwed for a bit more".

Presumably they come with a flashing sign and a pack of christmas cards declaring that you've helped to save the planet?

I think that'd be too vulgar for the target demographic. OTOH perhaps a tasteful poster for the window to let friends, neighbours and the organic veg box delivery driver know you are doing your bit.

I realise ad hoc speculation is more fun, but the radio programme I referred to did discuss the cost and greenyness of the various options. For example, iirc, it was mentioned that if you were to use it for a decade or so, a plastic tree would be no less "green" (as far as might be reasonably assessed) than a series of real ones.

#Paul

I was quoting from the Good Elf site about the costs of cut vs pot grown trees. They may be lying but I doubt very much they need to speculate about their delivery costs.

We've had our artificial tree for longer than that and it'll likely go one for a fair few years yet.