Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

This will be our Christmas trees third Christmas! Our allotment neighbours remarked on how well we have done to keep a Christmas tree from year to year, but to be quite honest we have done nothing to deserve praise. The poor tree lives in a small pot, slightly beneath an ash tree at the far end of our plot, farthest from the water butt. Somehow it has survived minimal watering, occasional comfrey soakings and being located in what is otherwise known as ‘the death zone’.

Our tree is slightly wonky, extraordinarily spiky when putting decorations on and needs a shower when being brought from the allotment each year, but once decorated it is beautiful and well worth the effort of lugging it up the stairs to our flat. We have become quite attached to our little tree. We have adorned it with collected Christmas decorations and suitable fairy lights to be made a fuss of over Christmas and have plans to re-pot it, ignore it and then decorate it next year too.

For those of you wanting to impress allotment neighbours and save a few pennies each year by keeping your own Christmas tree, I have written a short list of Christmas tree keeping instructions:

1. When buying a tree, choose a locally sourced and grown tree, or one that has at least been grown in the UK rather than abroad. Also consider the size you choose because Christmas trees in pots can get very heavy.

2. When bringing the tree indoors to display over Christmas, choose a cool room and avoid placing it too close to a fire or radiator, as this will cause excessive moisture loss and needle drop.

3. Give it a good soak and make sure the pot does not dry out. The tree will need more water due to the warmer climate the indoors creates, although they do not like to be waterlogged. We keep ours in a water tight tray to help save our interior décor. Please be careful not to water your electric lights!

4. It is best to keep the tree indoors for under 12 days, bringing the tree in as close to Christmas as you can.

5. When it is time to take it back outside we give it a couple of days in the shed to re-acclimatise itself with the cold outdoors.

6. At this stage you can either plant it in your garden (in which case be warned that Christmas trees can grow to an enormous size!), or re-pot it into a slightly bigger pot and save it for Christmas next year. Eventually the pot size required will be too big to carry indoors and then you will have to make a decision whether to plant it in the ground or send it to Christmas tree heaven, but bear in mind that Christmas trees are not generally long lived in pots anyway so don’t feel too guilty.

7. Make sure you have somewhere to keep it outside. Unless it has lights on it, a Christmas tree will look hugely out of place stuck in a pot on a patio. Either put it in a space within the garden where it will look like it belongs all year, or find a hidden spot that you walk past on occasion (eg near the shed) so that if it looks sad you can give it a water and a bit of food, but out of the way so that you don’t see it during everyday use of the garden.

Happy Christmas preparations everyone!