To hate seeing half-dead Christmas trees dumped outside

As I remember, the magic numbers are 7 and 10. Depending on manufacturing etc, an artificial tree is almost neutral when used for more that 7 years and definitely more emotionally efficient than a real true from 10 years onwards.

I don’t care; I’m having a real tree because the smell is the best part.

@devilspawn
I don't think an artificial tree bought and used for many many years is particularly bad.
Do you have nothing made of plastic? completely natural living? I doubt it.

There are a few donkey sanctuaries who ask for them too.

Ours is in our front garden, our council collects them. I heard on the radio that Whipsnade zoo collects some for elephants to play with, apparently they love trampling on them, they eat them as well!

I mean this nicely but I am not going to live with a dead fir tree in my house year round because I can’t face throwing it away once Christmas is over.

Where I live the council used to pick up garden waste but now won’t unless you pay a regular fee. However over half the households don’t have a car so they just get left on the pavement regardless.

What I do think looks sad is when a brown tree appears on the pavement in July. I know that not everyone sorts this out on 6 January but I can’t imagine living with the tree until July.

Sad to see it on Boxing Day but after that doesn't bother me. Council will start collecting on the 6th but I'm trying to get mine out today.

https://www.soilassociation.org/take-action/organic-living/christmas/eco-friendly-christmas-trees-real-vs-fake/

We have a fake tree, but it's been going for 14 years and is still in good nick, so I'm going to stick with it until it's paid its debt to society. 🌲

OP do you also feel sad for all the trees whose life has been reduced to being wrapping paper and cardboard boxes? Or the ones who get burned in wood burners? Not all trees are lucky enough to end up as IKEA Billy bookcases , so maybe we should all take a moment and say thank you to trees.

Leaving aside the real vs artificial debate, I agree the ex-Christmas trees look sad. I can't stand looking at ours all bare outside, so I cut it up as soon as it's down - the branches are either used around the garden or else go into the garden waste bin for eventual collection by the council, and the trunk is sawn up for use as firewood (in a year or two, once seasoned).

As i said on another thread there were 2 or 3 trees at the council re-cycling on Christmas Day evening - seemed a little over-enthusiastic unless they were going away on Boxing Day!

I agree, it’s a bit of a sharp reminder that the festive period is over! And I say this as someone with three dead trees in my front garden as we speak…

I think it’s sad too, the contrast of the hopeful brightly lit Christmas trees with the dead decay of one thrown out ( I am sadly adding to this misery) I try to imagine it is a spring clean of the lands ready for a new spring. A necessary cycle but I agree I miss the gaiety and beauty of the decorations everywhere, and I will take more time to pause and enjoy them next Christmas.

Even more sad - going to a garden centre when it re-opens on the day after Boxing Day to see all the unsold trees sitting there undecorated and unloved, and just waiting to be thrown away. The potted ones are all right (and I bought a small one to turn into a bonsai tree), but I feel horribly sorry for all the others. they were chopped down and killed for no purpose.

Seeing the plastic ones being thrown away is worse. I used to work with a lady who bought a new artificial tree every year. She liked to change the colour and style, and said they never went back in the box.

@Needmorelego great idea!

I am struck every year at just how weird it is that we bring an actual tree into our house to slowly die for a couple of weeks. I bought a potted, Christmas tree shaped bushy thing this year and will see if I can hang onto it for next year. It's not ideal for hanging decs on but we managed, and it's a nicer shape than a proper baby fir tree.

A pretty sight where I live is seeing a local charity collecting all of the trees to spread in the sand dunes.

@DogInATent put a sign up telling people they can do that.

I wish they'd drop them round onto our drive. We'd happily shred the branches for garden mulch, and saw up the trunks for the wood pile.

Thanks, Devilspawn, that's good to know. In regards to the actual individual tree, though, I still feel a sense of guilt, irrational though that may be.

They ate not 'half-dead'. They died when they were severed from their root stock last year.

There are tree recycling points here so fortunately very few dumped on pavement. If someone has the means to bring a tree home, they have the means to take it to a recycling point.

Ours is still up but I'll remove all the lights and decorations this afternoon in honour of twelfth night and we'll drag it out on the patio. In the next few days husband will chop off all the branches and put them in the green waste bin to be collected/recycled and chop up the trunk which we'll store in the shed and use as BBQ fuel in the summer.

I love having a real tree - my parents disapproved so we had a small fake tree at home. As other posters have said, they are like any other crop and recycling the wood and needles is more environmentally friendly than manufacturing plastic crap and importing it from China.

I’d love to give ours to goats. Never heard of that before.

Ours are (dumped) on the patio but look quite nice now they’ve got snow on them.

I feel like this, OP. So poignant.