Tired of your Christmas tree yet? If it’s a real one, it’s probably looking the worse for wear. Just like you, all that central heating, flashing lights and not getting enough water has left it a bit depleted. That sound waking you in the night? It’s the drooping branches, slipping off their baubles.
Was a real tree the right choice?
From an environmental and cost perspective, there are a few things to think about before doing it all again next year.
Get real?
The environmental argument for buying a real Christmas tree is that, like all trees, they capture carbon as they grow.
About 650,000 Christmas trees each year are produced by specialist Christmas tree growers in Ireland. About 450,000 sold at home and about 200,000 exported abroad, mainly to the UK, France and Germany, according to Teagasc.
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They are generally grown on a 10-year rotation: when harvested, Christmas tree farmers plant new trees to replace them. That’s 10 years of absorbing carbon from the environment and releasing oxygen into it, and then the cycle begins again.
Is cutting down real Christmas trees bad for the environment?
If people didn’t buy real Christmas trees, they wouldn’t be grown at all, the argument goes. Of course the transport of real Christmas trees adds to their carbon footprint. That’s why next year, you could try to find a grower as near as possible to where you live. Locally grown trees use fewer resources during shipping and have less impact on the environment. Ask if the netting used to protect them in transit is biodegradable.
Sustainable disposal of your tree is important from a carbon perspective too. Bring it to a recycling centre for chipping so that the tree can be sustainably reused, says Teagasc.
Fake plastic trees?
If you’ve got a fake tree, don’t feel green-shamed into getting rid of it. The most sustainable tree is the one you already have, says MyWaste.ie. If you already have a fake tree, keep using it. You’ll get about 20 years out of it. Hanging on to it will also save you between €50 and €80 a year – that’s about €1,600 over its lifespan.
If you don’t already have a fake tree, ponder this before buying one. It’s likely to be made from plastic that comes from crude oil, damaging the environment in its manufacture. It will probably have been shipped all the way from Asia too. Disposing of it will be problematic. You can take care to separate the metal from the plastic for recycling, but some of the plastic, like fake pine needles, won’t be recyclable. Most fake trees are headed for landfill.
[ Alternative Christmas trees: Don’t get too hung up on traditionOpens in new window ]
Go to pot?
If you have a bit of outdoor space, there is another option for Christmas 2025 and beyond and that’s an Irish pot-grown Christmas tree. This is grown in a pot in the soil. When it’s the right size, the pot is removed from the soil and it’s put in an outer pot, suitable as a Christmas tree for your home.
This isn’t the same as a ‘potted’ tree. Potted trees are grown directly in the soil, dug up and put in a pot. Many of these are imported.
You can water your pot-grown tree over Christmas to keep it fresh. Just keep it away from radiators. After Christmas, it goes outside. You’ll get four or five Christmases out of it if you repot it as it grows, says Christy Kavanagh of Kavanagh Christmas Trees in Co Wicklow. This could save you about €300 over five years. You could also plant it outside if you have space.
Tending to a tree all year can be rewarding. You may have more of a connection to something you have grown yourself too.