When decorating your home for the holidays, the hope is that your decorations will stay looking bright and beautiful at least until the New Year starts. Unfortunately, this may not always be the case, especially if you have a real Christmas tree.
As the colder weather of winter rolls in, it is likely that you will be running your HVAC more often to keep your house warm and cozy. But the very steps you take to look after yourself may be the same ones wreaking havoc on your tree, as the hotter, drier air in your home works to dry out the tree, making it turn brown and shed its leaves.
To help keep your tree looking full and festive for as long as possible, follow our advice for keeping the heat from drying it out.
Choose a fresh, healthy tree
It may well seem obvious, but that is only because it’s true. When shopping for your Christmas tree, you want to make sure that you pick as fresh a tree as possible, as this means it will look better for longer in your home.
This means looking for trees that look full and lush, don’t feel dried out to the touch and have little or no brown needles. If you can, look into getting an organic tree, as the better growing conditions again mean that your tree should stay looking fresh as long as possible.
Give your tree a fresh cut
When you have chosen the tree that you want and are preparing to pay for it, make sure the vendor makes a fresh cut along the bottom of the tree trunk where it was first cut down.
This ensures the cut doesn’t seal over with sap, which blocks up the cut and prevents the tree from being able to absorb any water that you place it in.
Put your tree in the right place
Once you’ve got your tree home, it is important that you place your tree in the correct place. This means you need to place it away from any heat sources like fires or radiators, and also away from any large electrical equipment, which can also give off heat.
You want to place your tree in a cool place where it has room to breathe.
Let the tree drink
When you purchase your tree, try and get it home and into water fast enough that its fresh cut hasn’t dried up. If this happens, you’ll either need to give the tree another fresh cut yourself, or accept that the tree will dry out much quicker since it is no longer able to absorb water.
Also while in your home always ensure it has plenty of fresh water which again keeps the cut from sealing so keeps tree hydrated, making sure it is topped u[p so it gets roughly a gallon of water a day.
Choose low heat lights
This year, try switching out your old lights for newer LED versions. Not only are these new LED lights more energy efficient, they also don’t give off heat anywhere near as much as standard filament bulb fairy lights. thus helping to prevent your tree from drying out.