Selecting A Fresh Christmas Tree In The Carolinas!
Every year my family and I travel for a long weekend to the North Carolina mountains, we create a lifetime of cherished memories looking for the "perfect" Christmas tree. LOL...note the word "perfect", there is a story behind our tree search every year. To pass the time as we look for our trees, each member of our family plays a game as to which one will find the perfect Christmas trees for our holiday and how long will it take them. To make your best memorable tree experience, Tonia Mosteller of Innovative Holiday Decorating of Charlotte, NC offers this advice to help you and your's select the perfect Christmas tree and have a hassle free holiday.
My husband is 6'4, so he is our tree marker for now (I'm sure by this time next year, our son will be our new tree marker in the family, he is outgrowing all of us). When selecting our Christmas tree, I'm of course a big-tree kind of gal, and my husband is the practical thinking one. My way of thinking from a distance...."No that tree can't be more than 8' tall." LOL...right? Until we approach the tree and my wonderful husband stands beside it. Guess which one of us was wrong. ;)
Our four legged son...Riley having a ball in the North Carolina mountains, helping us look for our Christmas tree!
Our family tradition to Boone, Blowing Rock, Valle Crucis, Banner Elk, and Spruce Pine, NC is such a blessing to us all. Our kids look forward to this event every year and so do we. We love to cook and bake our Thanksgiving meals while staying in the mountains for a long weekend. The girls go out shopping in Blowing Rock, and Boone, NC, while the boys go off on their adventures. Brian, Carissa and their kids found the "perfect" Christmas tree!
Amps and Mimi found their "perfect" tree at the farm in North Carolina. Can we say $10? Yes...that's right their Christmas tree only cost them $10 and it was 12'! Now, that's affordable holiday decorating!
Well, guess which family won our traditional Christmas tree game? We did...lol, only because we had gone up the weekend before with friends, and then went back to the mountains for our Thanksgiving weekend with our family. Shhh.... ;)
Here are 3 holiday decorating tips we want to share from our family to yours.
Holiday Decorating Tip 1: Know your tree size! Calculate your maximum tree size, measure the height of your ceiling and then subtract 1'. This will allow ample room for a topper, such as a star. If you plan on having a larger tree topper, then give yourself at least 2'. Keep in mind the size of the room that the Christmas tree will be placed in: the smaller the room, the skinnier the tree should be--unless of course there's very little furniture. Then a full tree is actually a welcome addition.
Holiday Decorating Tip 2: Check for freshness while you are at your favorite tree farm. One of our favorite tree farms to visit is located in Spruce Pine, NC we've been going there for 24+ years! Don't wait until you get home to decide if your tree is fresh, nothing kills that Christmas and holiday spirit quite like a tree with no needles. Run your fingers down a branch before you select it. All needles should stay intact, and your hand should smell like a delightful evergreen. Gentle shaking should also result in very little needle drop. If not, keep walking and looking until you find that perfect Christmas tree.
Take note, if you are buying a tree from a local lot in your hometown, even with diligent care, cut trees only last around an average of 10 days. Sometimes, you get lucky and a tree will last longer. A lot that offers trees harvested within days of delivery is the way to go if you can't travel to a tree farm and cut your own Christmas tree. Remember...high prices don't always guarantee freshness, and rock-bottom tags often yield very bad results and headaches for you later.
Holiday Decorating Tip 3: Once we are home from our weekend in the North Carolina mountains, my husband immediately will recut the trunk on an angle about 1" above the butt end to aid in water absorption. Make sure to get your Christmas tree in warm bucket of water within an hour of cutting, or the pores will seal or all your hard work and time will be gone. We always soak our tree in a bucket of water outside overnight, plus before our tree comes into the house, we spray it down with a hose to help hydrate the needles and get any critters (spiders) out. ;)
Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from our home
in Charlotte, NC to your home!
