If you’re out shopping for a Christmas tree, watch out for a shortage of the popular Nordmann fir. But maybe you’ve got a penchant for a fake tree? What type of Christmas tree will you pick up this year?
Even beyond the type of tree you’re after, there’s another question making the rounds this year – how many Christmas trees do you have?
The trend is to have more than one according to John Lewis. Apparently people are keen to experiment with different looks by buying an extra tree – it’s a style thing.
John Lewis is offering a mind-boggling 17 different styles of artificial tree – and by the way, paper is the ‘in thing’ if you want to be ahead of the game.
You can’t beat a real tree
Personally, I don’t think you can beat the smell of a real tree, so I’ve bought a non-drop Nordmann fir from my local Christmas tree farm. Buying locally is well worth the effort, as your tree won’t have travelled miles to get to you and should have been freshly cut.
The irony this year is that a shortage of Christmas trees in Scandinavia, teamed with a strong Euro, means that more of our home-grown trees are heading to the rest of Europe. It’s understandable, since our Christmas tree growers can earn up to 30% more by selling abroad.
But it does mean that Christmas trees may be thin on the ground in the UK, so if you want to make sure you get exactly what you want, it’s best to buy yours quickly.
Careful when buying container trees
My one top tip – if you want to buy a tree that’s still growing, look for one that’s spent its whole life in a pot (usually labelled ‘potted’) rather than one that’s been ripped out of the ground and potted up for sale (usually sold as ‘containerised’).
When we tested these trees at Which? Gardening, we unsurprisingly found that the containerised trees quickly turned up their toes and died.
So, what’s it going to be? A fake tree or a real tree? A Nordmann fir or a Scots pine? The choices are endless.
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