37 million American families will include a Christmas tree in their Christmas celebration this year.

decorating the tree


A tree is a exciting palette to explore your personal decorating taste and continue or start family traditions. Many families exchange and collect ornaments year to year. Like someone's christmas stockings, ornaments can become very personal expressions of Christmas.

The traditional that we now see as the Christmas Tree, has a very ancient history. Thousands of years ago Evergreens were honored and blessed as a symbol of the returning cycle of spring planting and summer harvest. Not celebrating the strength of the evergreen in the winter risked bountiful future harvests. Considered a pagan custom, the honoring of the evergreen became illegal and families began to move a tree into the house to secretly honor the evergreen, hence our seasons fragrant and beautiful tradition has its "roots".
 

Selecting your tree - Fresh, Artificial, Alternative Xmas Trees

The top selling fresh trees in the US
On the Internet you can order trees directly from Christmas Farms. In the US there are over 15,000 Growers of Christmas Trees. Select you favorite variety of tree and find the freshest source available to have them directly send you a tree. While going to select you own tree at a Christmas Tree lot or farm has wonderful appeal and adventure of finding the just right tree, the web is an excellent alternative.
 

Balsam fir	Douglas-fir	Fraser fir	Noble fir
Needles tend to be shorter and curved upward. Dark-green appearance, long lasting needles, and attractive form. It also retains its pleasing fragrance. Nine to ten years in the field are required to produce a 6-7 foot tree.	Needles are dark green or blue green, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long, soft to the touch and radiate out in all directions from the branch. They have a sweet fragrance when crushed.	Good needle retention, dark blue-green color, pleasant scent uniformly pyramid-shaped tree with strong branches that are turned slightly upward giving the tree a very compact shape.	Beautifully symmetrical with needles over 1 inch long, bluish-green but appear silver. Stiff branches and long keep ability. Widely used in the greenery business to make wreaths, door swags, garland
Scotch pine	Virginia pine	White Pine	Blue Spruce
Dark green foliage and stiff branches which are well suited for decorating with both light and heavy ornaments. Excellent needle retention and resists drying does not easily drop its needles.	Long classic Southern Christmas tree. branches are stout and woody. Foliage dense excellent for trimming. Small to medium sized tree.	White pine is considered to be the largest pine in the United States. Needle retention is good to excellent. White pine has very little aroma but can be good for families with allergic reactions to aromatic species.	Often used for Christmas trees or as ornamentals, particularly in the eastern United States and Europe. It is the official state tree of both Colorado and Utah.

Artificial Trees may be your chosen alternative. Once you buy one you many never ever have to think about getting a tree every year again.

Vast array of artificial trees on the market. Any size, shape, color is available. Here are a few ideas and samples of trees to consider. We included a few practical or unusual examples for your consideration.
 

Pre-lite Christmas Trees. The quickest way to have a beautiful decorated tree. Very little assembly. Open the box and the quality artificial tree is already hung with lights. 10 year warrantee	Another Pre-Lite tree in classic white. A great gift for individuals with no time or have difficulty decorating a tree. Nice gift for a charity or children's home.
The 1960's classic all Aluminum Christmas tree. Make sure you have a color wheel for the full effect.	Fiber optic Christmas Tree changes from white to yellow, to red, to green. High tech and showy.