Choosing A Christmas tree

One of the most basic and well-loved of Yuletide traditions is the selection and decoration of the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is the most recognizable of all symbols associated with the festive season. We all take great care to select the best tree we can find and place that beautiful and fragrant evergreen tree in our living rooms at home and lobbies of our offices. Everyone likes to attend Christmas tree lightings in small towns and also cities. And needless to say every kid waits breathlessly for Santa to deliver their presents on Christmas Eve.

If you’re a traditionalist, and have decided in favor of the real tree as opposed to the artificial kind, then the first task for you is to determine what kind of tree you want and where you should head to get it.

Nowadays, most people who wish to have the real evergreen tree just have to visit a commercial Christmas tree farm or nursery, or they can also buy it from a vendor in a market who has the tree shipped from some farm or nursery.

The choices of the Christmas tree are many, with spruce, fir, cedar, pine and cypress being the most popular. Fir is generally considered to be the ‘true’ Christmas tree. However, it might help you to know that there is actually no right or wrong kind of tree and fir also have many different species. As there is no ‘official’ tree as such, you can select anyone you like. In the White House, many different trees have been used as Christmas trees. But outside the White House, the National Christmas Tree seems to be the Colorado Blue Spruce.

The National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) says that the ten most popular Christmas trees which are grown and sold in the US are:

1. Fraser Fir
2. Douglas Fir
3. Balsam Fir
4. Colorado Blue Spruce
5. Scotch Pine
6. Eastern Red Cedar
7. White Spruce
8. Eastern White Pine
9. White Fir
10. Virginia Pine

You will have to take many things into consideration before you finally decide on which tree will be the best for your family. The first is the size of the tree. The space available in which the tree will stand is something which you should know exactly. You could carry a tape measure to ensure that you don’t get saddled with a tree which is too big or small for the space available to you.

You should search for a green tree without brown needles.

If the tree is curled or knotted, it might not fit into the space you’ve selected for it, in which case, it will have been a waste of your money.

Take a branch in your grasp, and gently pull it. It’s a strong tree if all or most of the needles stay on. If many fall off, the tree is weak.

After you set up the tree at your home, decorate it beautifully. Be sure to take precautions against fire.