Real Christmas tree. Are they messy?

[xLaura]

I've always had an artificial tree simply because I cba with the mess of a real one.
But this year I REALLY want a real one.

Are they as messy as I imagine? My LO will be nearly 2 at the time, so I don't want needles all over incase he gets hurt or anything. Plus he's obsessed with picking up bits off the floor so I don't know if it will drive him mad if it will keep shredding its needles.

 

[misspriss]

Not particularly. You want a fresh one and keep it watered. We cut our own, and wait until closer to Christmas, and we've never had an issue. I know plenty of people who get them day after thanksgiving and don't have a mess either.

They only shed a bit when being carried out for us.

 

[Amarna]

I don't think they're too bad as long as you don't have carpet. We've had them in the past and maybe we didn't water it enough or we just got a poor quality tree but I think we gave it plenty (it never went dry or anything!) and those needles were such a pain to try and vacuum up. I was still finding them months later!

We have wood floors now though so I don't think it will be as bad to clean up if it does shed.

 

[misspriss]

I don't think they're too bad as long as you don't have carpet. We've had them in the past and maybe we didn't water it enough or we just got a poor quality tree but I think we gave it plenty (it never went dry or anything!) and those needles were such a pain to try and vacuum up. I was still finding them months later!

We have wood floors now though so I don't think it will be as bad to clean up if it does shed.

Really? I've had them on carpet before and I don't recall it being a problem. But it was cheap thin apartment carpet? We usually keep them on the hard floors though. We had carpet last Christmas come to recall, the needles DID kill our vacuum, but it was on it's last leg....

 

[Amarna]

I don't think they're too bad as long as you don't have carpet. We've had them in the past and maybe we didn't water it enough or we just got a poor quality tree but I think we gave it plenty (it never went dry or anything!) and those needles were such a pain to try and vacuum up. I was still finding them months later!

We have wood floors now though so I don't think it will be as bad to clean up if it does shed.

Really? I've had them on carpet before and I don't recall it being a problem. But it was cheap thin apartment carpet? We usually keep them on the hard floors though. We had carpet last Christmas come to recall, the needles DID kill our vacuum, but it was on it's last leg....

The carpet at the time was that thick old shag carpet that used to be popular decades ago. It was generally a pain to vacuum though so I'm sure the kind of carpet didn't help anything. I absolutely hate shag carpeting.

 

[jd83]

It may depend what types of trees are local to you too. The ones we have in Ohio do shed quite a few pine needles over the timeframe they are in the house. And sap can sometimes drip, too. I remember it being a total pain to vacuum up the needles growing up when we had real trees, and my MIL has the same issue as she always gets real trees. But if you like real trees, its worth the trouble. I do enjoy the smell of real trees, and the fun of picking one out, so in that sense the short time frame of dealing with the needles is worth it.

 

[Vickie]

The most mess we get is when we take it out. We now lay a big sheet down on the floor with some rope underneath it. We wrap the tree up in the sheet and tie it off with the rope. This contains the mess AND makes it easier to carry out

 

[Kay_Baby]

Totally agree we get very little mess when up. It's taking it out the house after Christmas that creates the most mess.

As long as your tree is fresh, well watered and not placed right next to a heat source it should last without dropping a ton of needles.

 

[cbeauchene84]

I can honestly say i've never heard of people watering their Christmas tree so that is a bit of an alien concept to me! We have just brought a pre lighted artificial tree. Feel we can have it up for longer and saves a bit of faff. I don't really want to be sweeping up Christmas tree everyday when i'm practically due to drop! Maybe I will feel differently when I have children but i'm a pretty big Christmas person so I doubt it.

 

[Elphaba12]

Totally agree we get very little mess when up. It's taking it out the house after Christmas that creates the most mess.

As long as your tree is fresh, well watered and not placed right next to a heat source it should last without dropping a ton of needles.

^^^^ agree with all of this.

 

[jd83]

Totally agree we get very little mess when up. It's taking it out the house after Christmas that creates the most mess.

As long as your tree is fresh, well watered and not placed right next to a heat source it should last without dropping a ton of needles.

^^^^ agree with all of this.

I think this is MIL problem with her tree. THe only logical places for her to put her tree are right close to heat vents, so even with watering the tree often, it still dries a lot and drops needles.

 

[Lauraxamy]

I've only had one myself and yes it did shed quite a lot, but I put it on a sheet of wrapping paper so they didn't go all over the carpet

 

[dizzy65]

They aren't too bad

 

[lindseymw]

I've had one in the past and it shed loads of needles. I was still finding them months later. I did have two kittens at the time who insisted on climbing on it.

The bit that made up for all the mess was burning it in the wood burner afterwards. The smell was incredible.

 

[Pearls18]

When we had real trees years ago I don't remember mess when they were up but when taking them down, it might depend how long you have it up as well? I've never understood the appeal of a real tree I have a to say, I can never get the *******s to stand up straight and I never seem to smell that Christmas tree smell every one else mentions lol.