Skip to main content

10 Uses For Your Dead Christmas Tree

Instead of throwing your dead Christmas tree out in the trash, why don’t you try one of these 10 creative tips?

  1. Feed your outdoor fire pit. It is perfectly fine to cut up and use your old tree as firewood in your outdoor fire pit. The branches are great to help start your fire. Please keep in mind though, do NOT use any kind of would that has sap in your indoor or outdoor fireplaces. We mean NEVER! Creosote build-up from sap is a major fire hazard!
  2. Chip it! Contact a few of your neighbors and all pitch in on renting a wood chipper. Evergreen woodchips are a great blanket for playground areas in your back yard. They not only suppress weeds under the kids swing sets but breakdown and add nutrients to the soil too.
  3. Make homemade coffee table coasters. Cut thin slabs off the tree’s trunk, sand them down smooth and apply a thin glossy coat of polyurethane to them. This coating will help keep the sap off your tables and glassware.
  4. Creative Kids! Have your kids roll pinecones, found in the yard or you can by some at any craft store, in peanut butter and bird seed. Place your tree, in its stand, outdoors in the back yard. Have the kids tuck all the yummy birdseed covered pinecones in the Christmas tree to create bird sanctuary for them to enjoy through the winter months.
  5. Protect those veggies! Over the winter your veggie garden appears barren and blah. A nice way to make it more appealing until the spring planting months is to create a blanket from the evergreen needles and branches. The needles dry quickly and decompose slowly making them an excellent moisture and mold free covering for your winter vegetable garden.
  6. Insulation for your Spring & Summer Perennials. Another alternative for those Christmas tree branches and needs is to protect the roots bases of your hidden perennials. By laying the branches over your cut back perennials you are protecting them from snow and reducing the amount of exposure to heavy frost.
  7. Planting Bed Borders. Carefully with a chainsaw, cut the tree trunk of your Christmas tree into 2 inch discs and set them on edge into the soil along the perimeter of your planting beds. This adds a decorative touch to your wintering flowering beds.
  8. Recycle it. Some townships and cities collect old Christmas trees and recycle them for you. They will use it for mulch, composting and more. This could be done through your garbage collection company, or may require you to schedule a pick-up date. Visit your local municipality’s website for more information.
  9. Dune restoration. New Jersey State Parks have on-going projects instituting the preservation of their beaches and sand dunes by effectively using discarded Christmas trees. These trees are sometimes used after hurricanes to rebuild sand dunes and waterways by allowing sand to build up over the trees thus creating stabilized dunes.
  10. Fish habitat. If you live near a lake, pond or waterway your chemical-free Christmas trees can be used in them for fish to hide from predators and have a warm spot to live in the winter months. Don’t go dump your tree in any water system without checking with your local officials first.