Find out how to recycle a real Christmas tree, lots of environmentally friendly ideas plus why not start a family ritual tree-burning tradition each year?
Well folks it’s Twelfth Night, the last day of Christmas and time to take down the decorations. If you’re still awaiting an epiphany over how to recycle your Christmas tree (obviously all you lovely Kids of the Wild readers will have bought real trees this year following our excellent article Christmas Tree Care!) then read on for 13 great ideas for Christmas tree recycling.
For me there is no better way to end the Christmas celebrations than with a winter ritual Christmas tree burning on our firepit, on or around Twelfth Night, January 05th.
If pyromania isn’t your thing, here are more great ways of disposing of your old tree, Kids of the Wild style: –
13 Ways of Christmas Tree Recycling
- Plant it if it was a rooted tree – see Christmas Tree Care for what to do
- Burn it – by far the most fun! – and spread the wood ash on your compost heap or around a wildlife gardening
- Use it for fencing in a wildlife garden
- Council recycling – ask your local council’s refuse and recycling department if they take Christmas trees. Coastal councils may use trees for sand dune restoration or other environmentally friendly projects. Find your local council here
- Make coasters by sawing the trunk into thin slices and sanding smooth if necessary
- Chip it for composting or mulching the garden
- Make a Water Wheel – have’t tried this project but it looks fascinating; let me know how it works if you have a go
- Make a Reindeer – again not tried this one but it looks good for budding engineers
- Make a Bird Feeding Shelter – stand the old tree securely in the garden and attach various types of bird food to it – it provides shelter and food for a few months
- Edge a Flowerbed Border with pieces of trunk cut into short lengths
- Practice whittling on the thicker branches or the trunk if it’s a smaller size
- Make a Birdhouse, Candlesticks or Paperweights
- Make a Whisk – looks like another great project, let me know what you think
Ritual Tree Burning
Burning a tree on Twelfth Night, also known as The Epiphany (which means a moment of sudden and great revelation or realization and celebrates the time Christ was revealed to the world, the gentiles, in form of the three wise men), is perfect to signify the end of festivities; the flames, heat, warmth and a tree reduced to compostible ashes, the decorations down and the start of a new season awaiting the return of sunlight and spring.
It’s great for a family get together with friends and for teaching little ones about fire safety. We usually offer up wishes, new year’s resolutions or even negativities with the branches we throw into the flames.
It’s really important to get the wind direction right as Christmas trees burn hot, fast and with great intensity, being so dry and brittle after weeks indoors. Keep children well supervised.
Read about safe fire lighting here or learn how to make a firepit from an old washing machine drum.
Fire Pit Fail
We bought a stylish fire pit a few years ago. One of those with mosaic tiles and a flat lid that transformed it into a table when not burning. Complete with barbecue grill and weatherproof cover it looked great in the garden and was used lots. I can’t recommend it though.
Perhaps it was the size and strength of our fires……
….but on first use the cement between the tiles caught fire and loosened a chunk of the mosaic edging! The company sent us a replacement but the same thing happened.
Finding Beauty in the Broken
We kept the fire pit and used it for a few years for barbecues, chestnut roasting, parties, camping trips and of course ritual Christmas tree burning, accepting all its brokenness in line with the Japanese art of Kintsugi; recognising beauty in broken things. They repair breakages with golden paste rather than throwing them away. Bit of a metaphor for life and relationships…
I challenge you to seek out your hidden pyromaniac – you’ve got the whole weekend to work on it!
#CountryKids
Some great ideas here. Many wildlife parks love to receive old Christmas trees. They use them for enrichment activities for some of the animals.
Ah, that’s helpful to know, thanks Green Mum! I also saw suggestions for throwing old trees into ponds and lakes to help wildlife but suspect that is not a good large-scale form of recycling!!! Much better to contact a local wildlife park. Thanks for the info
I’m with you all the way. Outs is sitting on the bonfire heap too. In fact we have two ritual fires. One is with all the Christmas wrapping paper generated by ourselves and our holiday guests and the other is with the Christmas Trees. There is nothing quite like crowing round a big bonfire as the light fades on a cold winter’s day. I love how you have turned this into a post.
Thank you for linking up to the first #CountryKids of 2017
Thanks Fiona, both your bonfire ideas are great – burning the wrapping paper is genius as they can’t recycle most of it. #CountryKids
Some handy tips here. We have an artificial tree because of the kids and the cats! #countrykids
We’ve just got a rescue kitten but she didn’t go near our real tree, I think the needles are too spiky!
We were at Whipsnade Zoo yesterday and a lot of the enclosures had Christmas Trees in for the animals to play with and find their food. The tiger cubs were loving them #Countrykids
Apparently some parks are using them for fencing too! I’d love to see those tiger cubs, are you writing a post?! Thanks for taking the time to leave a note
Looks like a lot of fun, and pine makes a wonderful crackle when burnt! We have returned ours to the garden, it’s potted but doing very well…it’s just done it’s 3rd Christmas stint! Before the babies came along me and the hubby used to go for a beach walk at Formby and our tree used to come with us. They ask for donations of old trees to use as a natural defence to preserve the sand dunes. #CountryKids
Brilliant, taking your tree for a walk!! And on nurturing a rooted one to last 3 years. Our Christmas trees burn in a matter of minutes, they’re so dry, sometimes more of an explosion than a crackle!
That’s a great idea! Especially to burn it and have a bit of an event! We also like the idea of the flower boarder and could use branches to tame our rose bush x #CountryKids
Once you think about it there are endless possibilities really. Thanks for stopping by
If my hubby were to read this I think he\d consider changing to a real tree. He loves being a bit of a pyromaniac – concerning Christmas pudding. #CountryKids
Made me laugh out loud! We’ve had some Christmas pud conflagrations over the years too! x
We don’t have a real tree at the moment but I hope in the future we can. Thanks for sharing so many ideas for getting rid of them. #countrykids
Nice to hear from you and hope you enjoy a real tree one Christmas!
We don’t have a real tree but these are some great tips for what to do with a real Christmas tree after the festive season. I do like the idea of making reindeer from it though and having a fire can be such fun (when safely done of course!) Thanks for sharing some fab ideas. #CountryKids
Our tree burning tradition really is a fun way to recycle the tree, I’m sure you’d love it if you get a real tree sometime
We dont buy real Christmas tree as we dont have space but reading this is lovely as you have amazing ideas in here on what to do with trees rather than throwing them and adding them to landfills!
#countrykids
Thanks for your comments, glad to hear the ideas are useful.