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8 tips for selecting a live Christmas tree8 tips for selecting a live Christmas tree

Many Christmas tree farms open to the public the day after Thanksgiving, known as the industry's Green Friday. Tree farmer Jan Peery, Tanglewood Christmas Trees, provides eight tips for picking out and caring for the perfect tree.

Shelley E. Huguley, Senior Editor

November 25, 2024

3 Min View

A Christmas tree is the centerpiece of many homes throughout the holidays. But what about a live tree? After Thanksgiving, tree farms such as Tanglewood Christmas Trees in Edge, Texas, will swing open its gates, welcoming families in search of the perfect tree. 

Jan Peery, who owns Tanglewood Christmas Trees with her husband Dan and serves as president of the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association, provides eight tips for selecting and maintaining the perfect tree. 

  1. Purchase your tree from a local tree farmer. Interactive maps with locations throughout Texas and the U.S. can be found online at the Texas Christmas Tree Growers Association and the National Christmas Tree Association websites. 

  2. Before you select a tree, know ceiling height and space availability. “Trees are like bushes. They come in different shapes and sizes. Some are tall and skinny, others are short and fat.” 

  3. Bring a vehicle large enough to transport the tree. “We’ve had people come in a little car and buy a big tree.” 

  4. Select a tree with some empty spots or holes. “That’s where that special ornament can be placed,” versus having a full tree where the ornaments can only hang from the tips.   

  5. Once you bring the tree home, remove 1 inch to 2 inches off the tree trunk. “From the time you leave the farm and get the tree home, the trunk seals with sap and will not be able to draw water. So, make a fresh cut on the bottom.” 

  6. Immerse the trunk in water as soon as possible.  

  7. Maintain the water. “You’ve got to water your tree every day.” This helps the needles stay in longer. 

  8. Once the season is over, recycle. Artificial trees never decompose. Live Christmas trees can be placed in a pond for fish habitat or chopped for mulch and used in flowerbeds. Check with your city to find out if they have mulching or recycling services available.  

Related:Christmas tree farmer says ‘Keep it real’

The Peerys and the association encourage people to keep it real this Christmas and buy a live tree. Not only will you support a local farmer, but you’ll be creating memories that last a lifetime.   

(Contact a farm before you visit, as supply is limited, especially at the end of the season.) 

About the Author

Shelley E. Huguley

Senior Editor, Southwest Farm Press

Shelley Huguley has been involved in agriculture for the last 25 years. She began her career in agricultural communications at the Texas Forest Service West Texas Nursery in Lubbock, where she developed and produced the Windbreak Quarterly, a newspaper about windbreak trees and their benefit to wildlife, production agriculture and livestock operations. While with the Forest Service she also served as an information officer and team leader on fires during the 1998 fire season and later produced the Firebrands newsletter that was distributed quarterly throughout Texas to Volunteer Fire Departments. Her most personal involvement in agriculture also came in 1998, when she married the love of her life and cotton farmer Preston Huguley of Olton, Texas. As a farmwife, she knows first-hand the ups and downs of farming, the endless decisions made each season based on “if” it rains, “if” the drought continues, “if” the market holds. She is the bookkeeper for their family farming operation and cherishes moments on the farm such as taking harvest meals to the field or starting a sprinkler in the summer with the whole family lending a hand. Shelley has also freelanced for agricultural companies such as Olton CO-OP Gin, producing the newsletter Cotton Connections while also designing marketing materials to promote the gin. She has published articles in agricultural publications such as Southwest Farm Press while also volunteering her marketing and writing skills to non-profit organizations such as Refuge Services, an equine-assisted therapy group in Lubbock. She and her husband reside in Olton with their three children Breely, Brennon and HalleeKate.

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