When you buy a live Christmas tree, how long does it usually last?

Are you referring to a potted, live tree that you will re-plant in the spring, or do you mean cutting a tree to move inside?

If you mean the latter, I have found that those pre-cut trees were cut a long time ago, and last a very short time (a week or two) indoors before it is a dry fire hazard with needles flying everywhere. We tag our tree at a local tree farm and cut it down usually a couple of weeks prior to xmas. A fresh cut tree doesn’t lose many needles at all, has a great odor, and doesn’t dry out for long time (we had one indoors for a month).

I usually figured three to four weeks, but I think the record that I know of is seven months. That doesn’t include having needles still attached.

The few times I had one in my house it lasted 6 weeks with no problem. We once had one up for over two months and I think it was very dry and not safe. We were just young and lazy about getting rid of it. Maybe where you live makes a difference. Two of the times I had them in FL and the air is not dry like up north.

In America a lot of people put them up right after Thanksgiving and take them down right after Christmas. That’s a good 5 weeks. I realize other countries put them up closer to Christmas and take them down on the 6th or 7th of January.

If a cut tree, we always got it the week before Christmas so it would stay nice looking.

Yeah, I’ve probably gone 6 weeks in the past… but it’s not the same tree when you take it down that it was going up. I think about 3 weeks is the ideal, so that it’s not a desiccated, dusty carcass in the end.

I have had horrible luck personally with trees purchased from places like Home Depot. they are already losing needles when I bring them home and start decorating.
They never make it to New Years and I traditionally take the tree down on Jan 2.

However when I lived up north, the family would go out to a tree farm, choose a tree as we trekked through the snow and hub would saw it down. We would cut it again when we got home, and got into water very quickly and it literally could last til late January if we were lazy.

I think most trees are weeks if not months old/from time their were cut down. That’s why they don’t last. It’s a horrible mess and cleanup even by New Years.

We have been traveling to spend Xmas with our kids but not this year, we are considering a fake tree – once laughable in our house. My kids would be horrified but what’s the point?

I am all in favor of fake. Keeps more trees in the earth, less hassle for the family. Some people who have a lot of storage space store the tree put together with all the bells and whistles still on it.

Sometimes we use a branch or two, like a mini-tree, real though and use the mini-ornaments (we don’t have kids), it’s festive!

If you live, as I do, surrounded with acres of large, white pines that always need pruning, cut down some large branches, bring them into your house, and drape them seductively around one another. Then decorate any way you choose. They will last a week or so, and then can be returned to the woods as a haven for small creatures.

It depends a lot on how fresh it is when you get it and also the type of tree you will be buying. When you buy it make sure it is not it’s not dropping any needles. Get it at least 2 weeks ahead and cut off half inch or so from the bottom of the trunk and keep it in a stand that you can add water to so that it won’t dry out. if you keep it well watered and away from heat sources it will last over a month.

Related: To make sure you buy a fresh tree, bend one of its needles. If it snaps, it has probably been out of the ground for a while.