How to choose and look after a real Christmas tree

The 2023 festive season is well underway meaning you will probably be thinking about decking the halls and putting up your Christmas tree—if you haven’t already!

Many people will opt for a traditional real Christmas tree, which comes with a bit more upkeep than their plastic counterparts. Now, Jack Stooks, senior gardener at the King’s residence Highgrove, has offered up five top tips when it comes to buying, putting up and maintaining a real Christmas tree. 

He’s shared what to look out for when buying a tree, what not to do with your decorations, and how to make it last as long as possible to make the most of it this Christmas. 

Speaking on behalf of Slingo, Jack Stooks said: 

In choosing Christmas trees, you can go to places where you choose your trees and they cut them down for you so you know it’s fresh. Failing that, if you go to a supermarket you can look for them that way. If people don’t have time and want to go to a supermarket to buy one the idea is you look for one that looks the greenest.

You don’t want one that looks like it’s drying out because if it is, it won’t last as long. You want one that looks fresh and feels fresh to the touch. If you feel it and the needles start falling off immediately then avoid those ones, because they’ve been out for a bit too long and haven’t had water so they are dying off.

With trees, you get the non-drop trees and they do still drop, but the idea is that you should try and bring them in as late as possible and not have them too close to heat. So, not near a fire, not close to a radiator, ideally in a colder room if you have one. Ensure it’s in a cooler space as possible.

If it’s a cut tree you have to water it like you would a cut flower to keep it watered throughout the festive period. You have to make sure it’s topped up. I know sometimes my dogs go under and you can hear them drinking the water! Always make sure it’s fully topped up.

If it’s a potted one then you will have to water it as well, but you don’t want to over-water it. Make sure it stays moist and get it out as soon as you can after Christmas. Bring it in as late as possible and get it out as soon as possible, ideally.

With regards to pruning and cutting, there’s not really anything you can do. When you go to choose the tree ideally you want to choose one that will fit into the house. Yes, you could take some bits off with secateurs for it to fit your house a bit more perfectly and if some of the lower branches are a bit too low you can cut those off to make space for the Christmas gifts and to get to the watering.

The heavier the Christmas decorations, the more likelihood you’re going to have the branches keep falling down. So you want to have decorations that aren’t too heavy. Those that are heavy, you want to put further into the tree where the branches are thicker in size and they won’t bend. You want your lighter Christmas decorations at the end of the branches.

It’s also quite good to note that a lot of people say, "We don’t like to have a real Christmas tree because it gets cut down and it dies throughout Christmas," but bear in mind that Christmas trees are actually grown specifically for Christmas and if we weren’t buying them, people would stop growing them.

For a good few years those Christmas trees are growing and producing oxygen into the atmosphere and all the positive things that come with that as opposed to buying a plastic Christmas tree.