spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

i saw 2 conflicting experiences as far as how long the trees lasted. I'd like to find out more as we are getting our first real tree in this house this year. Which do you feel lasts longer?

Also, what tricks do you find help keep the tree fresh longer?

how long would you say a real tree would last?

Re: spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

Cut your own last much longer. The precut trees are cut before thanksgiving. Cutting your own is usually cheaper but it's more work. We will be cutting down our own tree this year.

Re: spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

ok...and you have to bring your own tools to do it? sorry never done it before.

spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

The farms provide a saw for you.

We love cutting down our own. This will be our 4th year.

Re: spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

We've done both and didn't find one lasting longer then the other. Cutting your own is a fun experience and a nice family memory. My kids had a lot of fun and we ended up getting a tree much larger than we wanted. It was a total Christmas vacation movie scene getting the tree in the house and making it fit cutting the bottom and top lol. The smell was nice but overpowering. I felt the fresh cut trees smelled more than the pre-cut. Be careful about placing the tree close to your heaters/fireplace. The back of our tree was dried out and bare withe all the needles falling off. It's a lot of maintains and daily sweeps of the needles so we went back to our fake tree.

Re: spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

The farm I went to you can bring your own tools or rent theirs.

Re: spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

Cutting your own tree will of course be fresher than one that has been cut down 1+ weeks ago. I cut mine down every year and never add anything special to the water to keep it alive longer. I usually go the first weekend of dec and it lasts to new yrs. highly recommend grandpa Tonys tree farm. Amazing trees, excellent condition, friendly family run place!!!

Re: spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

We cut ours down the weekend after Thanksgiving. We've been doing this for the past 9 years.

Last year we didn't go because a bunch of people in our group that we go with got a stomach bug. So we went out to Home Depot for one and it was dried out 2 weeks before Christmas.

Horrible - waste of money!!There were needles everywhere, just walking by it quickly caused the needles to fall off. I took it down Dec 26th - first thing in the morning.

My mom also purchased a tree from Home Depot a few years before and the same thing happened to hers. Never again.

You will never know when the tree was cut down - it could have been a month ago. When was the last time it was in water? etc... that is why a lot of them dry out so quickly.

With a tree you cut down there are not as many needles falling off and its fresh until after New Years. Plus, the experience it just so much fun! It's a tradition that DH & I started before we got married and have now made as our family christmas tradition.

Message edited 11/4/2013 8:28:30 PM.

spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

you can also go online and purchase fresh cut trees that are delivered to your door. We did this one year but the tree @6ft was too small for the families liking. But it was a beautiful fresh tree.

Re: spinoff: REAL Christmas trees pre-cut vs cut your own

I'm cranky in the cold, so the idea of cutting down my own just doesn't appeal. I see the fun in it....but I also know how I would get...mad cranky.

We've bought from Home Depot and have always gotten nice, full, healthy trees. We baby it at home, of course...lots of water, nowhere near a heat source. We don't get our's too early...maybe that's another thing that helps.