Buying and Caring for your Christmas Tree
We’ve put together a light-hearted, yet informative guide on buying a Christmas tree and how best to care for it at home.
Our Christmas trees
We sell two varieties of trees at Salle Christmas tree shop, here’s all you need to know to make your choice.
The Nordmann Fir
The Nordmann Fir is an elegant tree prized for its great needle retention. Grown in our plantation just down the road and transported to the shop without being placed in a net, they are truly some of the freshest trees you will find in Norfolk.
The Nordmann Fir has a milder scent than the Norway Spruce, but what it lacks in aroma, it makes up for in needle retention. Nordmann Firs have no trouble keeping their needles until twelfth night and we have seen many that are still looking pretty good in February, if you wanted to extend the holiday season through January.
Nordmann Firs involve more work than their Norway Spruce counterparts, and they don’t like being pruned. As such, they come in many different shapes and sizes, with us choosing the best ones to put in our shop for you.
We believe rummaging through our stock to find your perfect tree is part of the joy of choosing a Nordmann, this process is made easier if Rule 2 is followed, see below.
The Norway Spruce
The Norway Spruce is a wonderful traditional Christmas tree. They smell just like Christmas! Each time you walk into a room with a Norway in, you’ll be greeted by that smell.
Though not as popular as they once were, we still have a great many fans of the Norway Spruce who come and buy from us each year.
Unlike the Nordmann Fir, the Spruce doesn’t mind being pruned, so we are able to shape the trees through the year to bring you that perfect teardrop shape.
The Spruce doesn’t have the same stubborn needle retention as the Nordmann but provided it is well watered and not situated near any heat sources (see Rule 6) then the Spruce will still look great for Christmas.
Choosing your Tree
7 rules to follow when choosing and caring for your tree…
Rule 1:Trees look smaller outside…
From a strictly fiscal point of view, it would be great for us if you bought that 9-foot Christmas tree… yet, having to do tree surgery at home to shave 6 inches off the tree isn’t great, especially when you have an evening of untangling Christmas lights to look forward to.
So please do ensure you have a reasonable idea of what your room can fit before you head over to see us.
To aid you with this, we have very helpfully colour coded and ordered the trees by size at the Christmas tree shop, but this isn’t a perfect system so please leave a little room to spare.
Image: National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Rule 2: Bring a friend…
Though it isn’t always possible, bringing a friend makes picking a Christmas tree a more enjoyable experience in a multitude of ways.
A friend can hold the tree whilst you step back to assess it. As demonstrated here by our Christmas tree manager, Tom. Holding a tree can often be a wet and prickly experience, so it is best performed by someone else, like a husband or teenage boy. You could even give them some gloves.
A friend can give you advice on which tree to get, advice which you can choose to take or ignore.
A friend might tell you that tree is too big (See Rule 1)
If you have misplaced your friend or don’t have one on the day, our staff can serve as temporary “tree friends” should you need, standing in to perform all of the duties outlined above.
Rule 3: Will it fit in or on the car?
Sadly, it isn’t really appropriate to take photos of people’s attempts at putting large Christmas trees into small cars. If it was, we wouldn’t have to use this stock image and it would be altogether funnier, as we have seen it all.
Our staff are very happy to help you put the tree in the car, in fact they do it automatically, it’s more of an opt-out thing really.
You might consider bringing an old blanket to wrap the tree in, or a tarpaulin as they can be very wet.
Unfortunately we cannot help you attach the tree to the roof of your car. We have rope to help you, but we can’t do the tying on due to wearisome rules around liability.
We really encourage you to make picking the tree a family day out, so please bring the children to help you choose. Often people find there is no room for children as well as the tree on the return journey, we are more than happy for you to collect the tree later, this is preferable to leaving the children with us. Sorry.
Luckily, if you have chosen to disregard Rule 3, we are able to deliver your tree. This is a free service within the local area (Think Reepham, Cawston, Heydon kind of local) - and a paid for service to elsewhere. A certain amount of flexibility on the delivery dates is necessary, its usually when we have time, for example no weekend deliveries, this is Salle Park after all, not Amazon…
Image: Ragy Sabry - Pixabay
Rule 4: A little off the bottom?
Now, if you put “how to care for a Christmas tree” into Google or ask your AI overlord, you will inevitably see the tip “cut an inch off the bottom”. This is fair, in most places across the UK, people are buying trees that have been cut a while, sometimes up to a month in advance! A tree will callous over after it has been cut a while, much the same as what happens if we cut ourselves.
This protective mechanism stops the tree from taking up water, so in order to allow the tree to better take up water again, you guessed it, we cut a little off the bottom…
But this isn’t just any Christmas tree you’re buying… this is a Salle Christmas tree (cue the M&S music), sourced from our plantation only a few hundred meters down the road and cut especially for you, no longer than the week before. So no callouses. Our trees are just too fresh!
Rule 5: Leave the net on...
The net is not just for fitting the tree in the car. The tree is easier to handle in the net and therefore easier to navigate through the house, especially if you have already decked the halls.
Once the tree is in the Christmas tree stand and the stand is where you would like it to be in your house, you can then cut off the net...
If you have got to this point in the process and realised that you have absolutely no idea what you did with the Christmas tree stand, fear not! - This is very common and January was a very long time ago. Simply get back in the car and drive back to Salle Christmas tree shop, we have oodles.
Gif credit: GIF-WEENUS, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Rule 6: Trees hate heat.
A Christmas tree can survive a whole winter buried under a foot of snow, but won’t last a week next to a radiator and will last less than a day with a cat or a small child...
It is imperative that your tree isn’t placed by a strong heat source. Wood burners and Radiators can dry out the tree faster than it can take up water. We must remember that the tree is effectively dying now it has been cut, this process takes some time, but it is accelerated by drying out.
It is recommended that 1 meter of space at the minimum is left between tree and heat source. This is doubly important for Norway Spruce, they really hate the heat.
Rule 7: Trees love water.
This is fairly obvious, but they really do.
You should aim to water the tree at least once per week, if you have disregarded rule 6, due to having bought a huge tree, or because you have an abundance of radiators, then we recommend checking the water every 3 days.
Wondering where to get a suitable water-retaining stand for your Christmas tree? Can you guess?
Find us at NR10 4SG
We are located on the B1145 between Cawston and Reepham. About 20 minutes drive Northwest of Norwich.
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