Do you know your firs from your spruces from your pines? What's the ideal height-to-width ratio for a Christmas tree? Len Penzo at the Business Insider will tell you. Don't wait until you're at the lot to think about what you want in a tree. If your eyes are often bigger than your living room, then you know that a little planning (and a lot of measuring) will go far in finding the best tree for your space.
Do you prefer a fuller tree or one with more space between the branches to accommodate larger ornaments? How important is needle retention (especially if you're the one stuck manning the vacuum)? What about needle softness for homes with kids or pets? This handy chart covers it all, right down to my favorite Christmas tree quality: fragrance.
The article also discusses how to determine your ideal tree size (hint: you should know both the height and width of your space), and includes tips for finding the freshest tree on the lot.
It's probably more thought than you've ever put into picking a tree, but you'll wind up with your best tree ever.
Check it out at Business Insider.
(Images: 1. Shutterstock 2. Business Insider)
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Or you could just go to your local guy selling Christmas trees and just pick one you like. If every minor decision I made was turned into a process like this with a chart, I don't think I could get up in the morning.
My absolute favorite has been left off your list - the white fir (aka concolor fir). Unless you're calling it something else? Strong long needles, blue green silver tone, amazing water retention, strong citrusy fragrance. How could this have been left off the list! Once you go concolor you never go back!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abies_concolor
Sadly, this was all moot in my city, where I could find nothing except Fraser firs.
I think if you need a chart and a lot of measuring to buy a Christmas tree, you are overthinking this a little bit.
Pick one that looks pretty and is roughly your height or a little taller and not insanely wide. Ask when it was cut so you can determine freshness. Don't buy one that was cut in August. Done.
The noble fir is the king of Christmas trees. Probably don't need the chart to know that, but it does give you the tree variety's name if you are sending your spouse out to pick one.
We like getting our trees from farms that are close (but when we lived in Georgia this meant we got a tree full of living insects - eew).
Couldn't agree more with particleman!
The over analysis could just take all of the fun out of this, after all a tree is in your house for 4 weeks, tops.
I also think that the character of christmas tress has been lost over the years with farms catering to the perfectionist consumer. I miss the charlie brown trees of my childhood....quirky, unbalanced trees that one couldn't help but giggle at first sight.
Personally, I love charts and graphs. To some that may be "overthinking" things, but some of us are just scientific and organized. This was helpful to me, despite not having this sort of variety to choose from anywhere I shopped for trees.
All well and good,but can someone please tell me why the trees I have bought in the last few years have NO smell?!? Im thinking of going fake for the first time ever just because of the lack of smell.
My father is a forester, and my parents actually own a U-Pick Christmas tree farm, so I always have the best trees :) Cutting the tree and dragging it out on snowmobile is my favourite part of the process. Dad farms balsam fir trees, but one year we had a pine tree. It was pretty, but ouch!! Decorating it was torture to my 10 year old fingers.
I think there's something to be said for a little character though! Everyone wants a perfect tree, but a gap can accomodate a pretty ornament, etc. Just make sure that the tree is straight - you don't want to have to tie it just to keep it from toppling on Christmas eve!
Also!!! don't pick a tree that was cut more than a week and a half before Christmas...unless you want your tree to be past it's prime and looking a little sad by Christmas day. Make a fresh cut on the trunk before placing in your stand. Water every morning and evening.
Back when I lived in the Yukon I'd just go out to the cliff base behind my house, find a tree that had fallen recently and hack off the top to bring home. Done. I miss those days. Except for the cold. Going to a tree lot blaring tinny, distorted holiday tunes through their speakers, usually in a drenching Wet Coast rain, and trying to find one I can afford and small enough to bring home on the bus isn't quite the same though it can make for some fun bus rides. The chart is handy but you can still pick a tree just because you like the way it looks. Just don't complain when you get one that has poor needle retention. You were warned!
Or like the children in "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," remain standing after a fir is thrown at you and it is yours for free!!
Yep, this much planning would kill all of the fun for me. I guess for people who really enjoy research, this it pretty great, but I just want to look at every tree on the lot and get the very nicest one. Thoroughly researching it beforehand isn't going to change my options at my local lot, or my taste in trees, so for me it is a non-starter. I do like to learn about trees, though, so I guess there's that.
That said, noble firs are my favorite. I saw some hilariously bad ones at the lot last night; one was like ten feet tall, and had about 3 rings of branches on the whole trunk, each spaced a couple feet apart. It was sad enough that it was basically a giant Charlie Brown tree, it was really weird to see for sale at a lot. But for the little ones especially, the branch spacing is just tight enough that all the ornaments get breathing room. I'm not even sure how I would decorate the ones that are just a mass of solid foliage.
Also, vacuuming up the needles is as much a Christmas tradition for me as anything else. I like having a little forest floor in my house for a couple weeks!
I have never seen a spruce or a pine with " soft" needles. one year we picked up a blue spruce and despite gloves our hands were as scratched up after decorating. it was a beautiful tree though.
I went fake a few years back and probably wont ever switch back. 1) its better for the environment; 2) its better for MY environment with pets and the mess 3) I get a large real wreath every year so I still get the smell of a live tree. I really think its the best combination for me.
We cut our own in a big group with family and friends...pretty much the only Christmas Commercial moment of the year for us, and lots of fun. Other than knowing the limits of the ceiling height and price (perfect trees are beaucoup bucks, and really, who wants a perfect tree?), we just work to find one that everybody currently living in the house can agree upon.
We did get a yew one year - it was GORGEOUS, but the needles were like, well, needles. Very painful to decorate, I ended up putting on gloves, and then nobody could get near the thing.
My favourite is a Nordman Fir.
I don't want a Christmas bush, I want a Christmas tree, and just about everything on the market these days is way too full. It wasn't like that when I was young... The problem with these over-pruned Christmas trees on steroids is that you can only hang ornaments on the ends, and can't create the depth you can on trees with actual space between (horizontal) branches.
Very frustrating.