What Can I Do With My Christmas Tree?

By Author: Bruce Tucker
Total Articles: 174
Comment this article

If you are like me there is nothing like celebrating Christmas with a live tree. I take it a step further and drag the family along to a tree farm, a place where the trees are specifically raised to become Christmas trees, and cut my own tree down.

The family and I decorate it with ornaments and lights. We take the time to water it and care for it, even though we know it won't be around long. But invariably the season comes to an end and you are left with a tree that you just put out to the curb side for the local trash collector to pick up. You are probably wondering what you can do with your tree to make better use of it through recycling. Here are some things I do and have come across.

The first thing that you could do is rent a tree shredder from your local Home Depot or Lowe's or any other home center or lumber yard, and shred that tree into some nice mulch. Take the mulch and put it around your trees in your yard or flowers and so on. As the tree shred decomposes it will release valuable nutrients into your soil that your plants and other organisms will absolutely enjoy.

You can cut off the ...
... branches that have the pine needles on them and if you are creative you can intertwine them and make wreaths for you door, or create grave blankets, which you would place at the grave of someone that has passed on. Sure we don't want to think about it, but you can do it. Of course both of these leave the actual tree and with that, you can cut down and make firewood that you can use yourself or give to a neighbor or friend.

A friend of mine, who is very handy when it comes to woodworking, actually takes the wood part of his tree and can turn it into different types of woodland creatures, i.e. a bear, squirrel etc. Of course you have to be good to do that, of which I am not, but you might be.

I also read in a magazine about a guy in Minnesota who carves toys out of the wood. He gathers up the trees in his neighborhood (thereby recycling even more than his own), and through his talents builds toys for children that he then gives away to under privileged kids.

I am sure you can even think of some creative ways to dispose of your Christmas tree. Chances are you paid a lot for that tree, why not put it to more use other than what it was intended for.
About the Author:
Mr. Tucker is a regular contributor on Bukisa, an online community for writers that pays them for their articles. You can also follow Bruce on Twitter.