Recycling real Xmas trees

[TanksHill]

I am much less creative with ours. Every year it goes out the back of the house. The following winter its dry as dirt. We break off branches and use them to start our fireplace. I think this year most of our families trees ended up in the desert. Quite a show when you throw one whole into the fire pit.

g

 

[patandchickens]

I would take it a step further by collecting the needles to stuff little pillows for fragrance, which I've done with Canadian Hemlock needles.

Oh, this is AMAZING when done with Balsam Fir needles.

A pillow stuffed with balsam fir needles will still smell christmasy when 'scroonched' a bit several years on. Actually I have a small sachet of balsam fir needles that I made for my most-beloved cat as was dying, 10 years ago (she loved sitting under the christmas tree, and it was apparent she wasn't going to make it to christmas), and it *still* smells somewhat piney if you stick your nose into it and inhale.

I have not had much luck with the fragrance lasting with other kinds of xmas trees, alas -- is there some kind of easily available fixative one can use or something?

Pat

 

[FarmerDenise]

I have generally thrown the tree to the chickens for their entertainment, thrown the tree in the yard for the birds, cut the branches to cover the vegetable garden in order to prevent cats from using it as a litter box or chickens from making dust bath wallows, once the needles are gone, I break up whatever is left to fit in a box for kindling the following winter.

This year we didn't have a tree. I cut a few branches from a neighbor's tree out back (they were hanging over the fence), just so we could have the semblance of a tree.