How to Care for a Fresh Christmas Tree

This post on how to Care for your Fresh Christmas Tree is sponsored by MiracleGro. All opinions, work, hair-brained ideas, and knocked over Christmas Trees are 100% mine.

So funny story.

I keep a calendar with a list of my upcoming projects. On that calendar, I map out days that I need to do certain things in order to get the projects done and posted by their deadline.  Most of the time I do a pretty good job chugging along working through my list. I take things in order and try my very best to avoid a last-minute deadline rush.

I knew that this article was coming up and was really really excited about writing it. My oldest daughter was home for Thanksgiving break and I was really looking forward to going as a family to pick out a fresh Christmas tree this year. My husband was soooo over figuring out the giant puzzle of our plastic Christmas tree and the kids were dying to go to a Christmas tree lot and pick out a tree. I think mostly because they thought the lot would be an awesome place to take selfies.

We scouted out a good lot near our house, picked our tree, tied it to the car,  brought it home, set it up and decorated it.

The Story of the Fallen Christmas Tree:

I set aside Last Wednesday to photograph said Christmas tree. I set up the camera, then went to run a few errands and came home and found this.

Seriously not okay and totally messing up my plan for the day. Also, our living room was a total disaster, it was a long weekend.. don’t judge…

The dog was hiding in my bedroom.  I called her to come to me and she would not get within 10 steps of the Christmas tree.

The guilty look on her face, won’t go near the tree, hiding in my bedroom… Yeah… culprit found.

She did eventually come into the room and seemed all to proud of her handy work.

I couldn’t get the tree back up by myself and had to wait until my husband got home to fix it.  By then one side of the tree was bent in and the star on top, well it will never be the same again I’m afraid!

Soooo… my plans for photographing a beautiful Christmas tree in soft morning light were pretty much shot and a scene more likely to come from Christmas Vacation replaced it.

Honestly, it really doesn’t bother me all that much that one side of the tree is smashed in. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it and the leaning real Christmas tree seems to fit our family a bit more than a perfectly decorated one.

Let me tell you what we’ve learned from this.

How to Set up a Christmas Tree; Tips & Tricks:

One: Buy a Wide and Sturdy Base for your Christmas Tree

Buy a quality Christmas tree stand with a wide base. Ours was plastic, big mistake.  The wider the base the less likely the tree is to be knocked over.  I had a reader (I shared the photo on Instagram) suggest tethering the tree to the wall with fishing line if you have a lot of animals that you’re worried about messing with the tree.

Tips specific for Fresh Christmas Trees:

One: Get the Lot to Trim the Trunk

When you buy the tree ask the lot if they will cut at least ½″ off the bottom of the trunk.  The sap seals the base and makes it so the tree won’t take up water.  If they don’t do this you’ll need to make sure you do it yourself at home.

Two: Check for Brown Spots on the Tree

When buying your tree run your hands over the branches. Do they feel dried out? Do a lot of needles fall off? If so, the tree might already be too old and you may want to pick out another one. Also, watch out for brown spots or needles.

Three: Use Miracle-Gro for Christmas Trees

One capful of Miracle-Gro for Christmas Trees per quart of water will help reduce needle drop.  Click here to watch a video explaining how it works.  One small bottle will be plenty to last you the entire Holiday season.  You can buy it at Lowe’s, Home Depot, Amazon, True Value, Do-it-Best, & Ace Hardware Stores. 

Four: Water!

Your Christmas Tree will require the most amount of water in the first two weeks that you have in your home. Make sure you check daily that it has enough water. Make sure the bottom 2″ of the tree is always immersed in water.

It seems like we aren’t the only ones to have a funny Christmas Tree story. My sister-in-law said once her cat jumped off the 2 story railing and landed right on top of the Christmas tree that was at least 5 feet away.  The tree stood up fine and the cat wasn’t hurt,  but she did say that after that the cat stayed away from the tree.

Do you guys have any funny stories to share?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Miracle-Gro. The opinions and text are all mine.