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Allie M
Make your Christmas tree go the distance

RSPB Scotland's Molly Martin shares some ideas for what do to with your Christmas tree when twelfth night rolls around.

Make your Christmas tree go the distance

Twelfth night happens on the 5th or 6th of January, depending on which traditions one follows. It is traditional to take down all your Christmas decorations, including the tree, by twelfth night, or you’ll have bad luck for the rest of the year!  

crested tit perched on pine branch

It can be sad taking down the tree and fairy lights and cards that have been brightening up your midwinter, but all is not lost, and it’s a great chance to start sprucing up your garden for the year to come. 

How to use your tree after Christmas:  

someone carrying a christmas tree

Living trees can happily be kept in a pot outside ready for next year. Easy. 

Plastic trees can be dismantled and shoved back under the bed or at the back of a cupboard for another year, waiting for the moment when you remember how fiddly they can be to put back together. Simple.  

And there are plenty of things you can do with your tree if you’re not keeping it for next year too! 

  • Make a bird feeding station Bird
    If you prop up the tree in your garden, it’s a great place to hang birdfeeders off, and more timid birds will be glad of the cover     of the branching, which provide shelter from the cold and predators. 
  • Use it for support Blossom
    If you take off the branches, you    ’re left with a great pole which can be support for climbing flowers or vegetables, such as sweet peas and beans. The branches can be used to insulate flowerbeds with hibernating bulbs in! 
  • Compost it Seedling
    If you have access to a     shredder, you can put some of the chips and needles into your compost, you can also spread the chips over beds, paths, or around growing things. 
  • Donate it Gift
    Garden centres often take Christmas trees and turn them into woodchips or mulch to use on plants or sell.
  • Get crafty Scissors️
    Parts of the trunk can be cut into candleholders or coasters    , or ornaments (if you’re very crafty). And the pine needles can be used as potpourri, or put into homemade soap or candles.   

  • They are also being used to stabilise the dunes at the West Sands in St Andrews, not by growing them but using them as a sort of binding agent. They are being placed in depressions in the sand and covered over with additional sand. The BBC covered it. Ian