3 Way to Recycle Your Live Christmas Tree

What do you do with your "live" Christmas tree now that the holiday is over? The recycle options are many, but if you want to try some holiday green living, here are three great options. Rather than drag it to the curb, you can recycle your Christmas tree right there at home in educational, money saving and green ways. Three of the easiest ways to recycle your Christmas tree are: keep it whole as a bird feeder, or cut it up for mulch, or cut it up for fire-starting wood.

A Natural Bird Feeder
Where it comes to educational, you can recycle the Christmas tree by setting it up in the backyard for the birds. Many birds like to hide in the branches for protection against the winter cold. The tree also creates a feeding haven if you place your bird feeders or suet cages near it or even hang them on these trees. Small suet balls covered with wild bird seed are easy to make and you can hang them with reused ribbon from the packages under the tree.

Leave the Christmas tree in the stand and use stakes and ropes to keep it from blowing over. To be fancy, leave the lights on and light them at night for your own enjoyment!] Then sit back and watch the wildlife flourish in your own back yard. It makes for a great pastime over morning coffee on weekends when you don't feel like doing anything more than watching the birds.

An Excellent Winter Mulch
If birding is not your thing, go ahead and recycle your Christmas tree in pieces. Cut the branches off your Christmas tree right away (rather than keeping it whole), and lay these branches over the more tender plants in the garden, especially if you lose the snow cover in your area.

The best plant candidates for this kind of branch mulch are the plants that stay green all winter and the ones that begin growing very early in spring, that might get nipped by a late cold snap. An obvious advantage is that when you recycle your Christmas tree this way, the branches won't blow away in the winter winds like lighter mulch will. And when winter is over, just throw the weathered branches in the compost heap.

A Great Fire Starting Fuel
Did I mention cheap? When you recycle your Christmas tree for fire-starting wood, you get all the advantages of the store-bought high priced kindling material for free. You can snap off the smaller branches at the top by hand. For the thicker branches at the bottom of the Christmas tree, and the tree trunk itself, cut them up in one foot lengths and let them 'season' for a month or two at least, and then use them as kindling wood in the backyard fire pit or in the indoor fireplace. Just remember that pine and spruce have plenty of resin in them that causes lots of popping and crackling in the fire, so keep your fire screens in place when burning inside or outside in dry weather.

If you really like these re-use idea, I am sure your neighbor will not mind if you took their Christmas tree off their curb to use for your own recycling purposes. Believe it or not, it's a great way to meet your neighbors and at the same time spread the word about how easy it is to live green in the suburbs.