After-Christmas tree

Having a dead tree in the living room is great while it’s still covered in bulbs and tinsel, but after the holidays, something needs to be done with that crumbling Christmas artifact. Local tree growers said some people chop them up for firewood, some make bird feeders out of the branches and some artists could make sculptures out of the trunk. But for real-tree devotees who aren’t so creative, the after-Christmas tree is just a hunk of wood and nettles.

Judy Reifenberg is an Indiana representative of the National Christmas Tree Association and also runs St. Joe’s Christmas Tree Farm in Fort Wayne. She said recycling a Christmas tree is landfill friendly, and in many respects earth friendly. Christmas trees can bring joy well past Christmastime: Mulched trees make great compost, and if people replant their holiday trees, birds will flock to them.

Many growers offer to take the trees they sold back at the end of the holiday season and recycle them for the buyers. The growers will usually grind the used Christmas trees in the wood chipper to make mulch or wood chips to sell in the spring.  

Many tree growers in Bloomington said people tend to dispose of their trees between Dec. 26 and mid-January. Zac Simpkins, farm manager at Twin H Tree Farm, 620 W. Chumley Road, allows people to return the trees they bought from his lot after the holiday season is over.

He said Twin H usually closes for the season around Dec. 23, and after Christmas people who want to return their trees for disposal will drive by and drop their used trees in the barn while the Twin H staff are away visiting their families.

“Then when we come back there will be a huge pile of trees waiting for us,” he said.

Brenda Strauss, human resources manager at the Monroe County Solid Waste Management Center said the center accepts old Christmas trees for recycling. They are then given to Good Earth Compost Co., a local landscaper, to be turned into mulch and sold during the summer. The center is accepting trees at the Central Station Christmas tree Drop-off Site, 3400 S. Walnut St., from Dec. 29 to Jan. 17. After that, citizens of Bloomington will have to mulch their own trees by renting a wood chipper.

Tree buyers who are trying to be more eco-friendly during Christmas will be happy to know that there are also “bulb-and-burlap” trees that can be purchased from growers. Growers dig these trees up from the ground with the roots intact, so after buyers have decorated and celebrated the holidays, they can avoid a trip to the wood chipper and use their tree again by planting it in their own back yard.

Simpkins said trees should not be indoors for more than 10 days, and buyers should store their trees in their garages for four to five days, or at least until some time closer to Christmas if they are thinking of buying a tree now.

Reifenberg added that if students want to use these trees in their gardens, the best thing to do is plan for the tree ahead of time and dig the hole in advance, before the first frost. Otherwise, would-be Christmas tree planters will most likely have to dig in frozen earth, and at that point, “you are going to need more than just a shovel.”