How to Keep Your Christmas Tree Looking Good

You go to all the trouble of decorating the Christmas tree, but if you neglect your tree, all the decorating in the world won't make it beautiful. Read on for simple tips to keep your Christmas tree fresh and festive.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• fresh Christmas tree
• adequately-sized tree stand
• water
• optional: LED lights
• optional: hand saw

1. First thing first, make sure you are buying a fresh tree. Stroke the branches to see how many needles fall off. If the branch sheds its needles easily, keep looking. You can also pick the tree up a couple of inches off the ground, and let it bounce. This will shake the branches enough, so that you can see how many needles fall off. A few needles are normal, but more than that, and that tree is not fresh, and may be beyond saving.

2. Once you find a fresh tree, make sure you are placing it in a cool spot in your house. Heat sources should be as far away from the tree as possible. Heat saps moisture and moisture is essential to a beautiful tree.

3. If you can, use a hand saw and cut off maybe an inch or two from the bottom of your tree. That will better expose the tree's "waterways" or the outer sap wood that transports water upward throughout the tree. This is not necessary, but will aid in the tree taking in water. If you expose the "waterways" and then let them dry out, they will not be as efficient as they would be if they are newly exposed.

4. Water the tree!! This is the most important step. A large tree can drink up to a gallon a day, so make sure that you are maintaining enough water in the tree stand.

5. 
   Just an example of the colors and shapes available in LED lighting choices.

   In keeping you tree as cool as possible, consider switching over to LED lights. LED stands for light-emitting diodes. The technology has really come a long way in LED lighting, so there are lots of colors and shapes to choose from. LED lights cost a little more upfront, but they cost pennies to run and they last for 50,000 hours. They are also shatter-proof, non-toxic, and they run cool -- so no fire hazard.

6. Please recycle your tree after your holidays. Turn it into mulch for your garden, or find tree recycling sources in your community.

[bfreethree]

on 1/22/2008 Great article Cheeky, the tip about the LED ights on the tree sounds great!