Whether you’re a stickler for tradition or someone who eagerly embraces every new trend that comes along, decorating your home for the holidays is a matter of personal taste.
Regardless of design themes or colour schemes, though, a Christmas tree is one element that has, for the past five centuries, formed the decorative centrepiece in homes where Yuletide is celebrated.
Today’s condo and townhouse dwellers are often limited by strata regulations to putting up artificial trees made of plastic and metal, but for those lucky enough to be able to bring a real fir or spruce indoors, its presence adds an element of raw nature that cannot be replicated.
Here, in Greater Vancouver, this usually means picking up a pre-cut tree from a major grocery chain or chopping one down at a U-cut tree farm – then, when January rolls around, hauling it to a parking lot somewhere to be chipped.
But a growing number of Lower Mainlanders are embracing a third option – one that a local nursery owner believes is the most environmentally sound decision a Christmas tree buyer can make.
Tri-Star Nurseries, owned by Tony Sourial, is one of a number of Surrey businesses that sell live trees each December.
Generally, the trees come either with the rootball wrapped in burlap, or planted in a pot.
Among the many benefits that come with decorating a live tree over a cut one, Sourial noted, is that they don’t drop their needles and they retain their fresh scent as long as they’re watered.
“When you get them in the heat of a home, they produce a nice aroma – more than if they’re sitting outside,” he said.
“They start sweating at around 15 C.”
Indoors, live trees can last for 15-20 days, while outdoors, they’re fine for much longer than that.
But it’s the longterm benefits of living Christmas trees that convinced Sourial to make them a big part of his own nursery, which he has been running for the past 30 years.
Once the holidays are over, the trees can be planted, to live on for decades to come.
“We’re trying to avoid waste,” said Sourial.
“When you take the kids out to cut down a tree, if you really look at it, you’re killing a tree.
“I studied before I started, and I was shocked to learn that over Christmas in North America, people kill 100 million trees.”
It’s simply not sustainable, he believes, even if the trees are grown for that specific purpose.
Another problem solved by selling or renting living trees, noted Sourial, is dumping.
Not everyone can be bothered to take their cut tree to be chipped for charity once the season is over. Instead, he said, a lot of them end up in ditches in rural areas, including near his nursery.
In Surrey, living trees are sold at a variety of locations, including Arts Nursery, Art Knapp, Port Kells Nurseries, and Hunters Garden Centre and Flower Shop.
In fact, choosing a live Christmas trees is not a particularly new concept, but it’s one that is rapidly gaining in popularity, according to Sourial.
So much so, that he decided about 10 years ago to take the idea a step further. That’s when he began renting out live trees for the holidays.
From September to mid-December, people can simply reserve a tree. Closer to the holidays, they can pick it up, or have it delivered. Then, at the end of the season, return it to the nursery, at 5047 184 St., where it will continue to grow and be available to rent once again, as a slightly larger tree, the following year. Eventually, when they grow too big to be brought indoors, they are planted as mature trees.
The rental side of his business is unique enough that it was “a slow build, because nobody knew about it,” Sourial said.
The first year they rented out live Christmas trees, they had just 10 orders. The next year, as word began to spread, that number grew to 100 orders.
Now, Tri-Star typically rents out between 200 and 300 trees per year, ranging from table-top size to 20 feet in height.
For a higher fee, they also offer pre-decorated trees, which, Sourial said, are especially popular with businesses.
Among Sourial’s repeat customers who choose to purchase a new living tree every year, are a man who, at the end of the holiday season, plants each one for his granddaughter, and another man who purchases and plants a tree in honour of a different grandchild every December.
As it becomes more popular each year, Christmas tree rental is an environmentally friendly trend that may well evolve into a longstanding holiday tradition for more and more families.
That’s the goal, at least, said Sourial.
“To preserve trees is the most important thing.”
For more information about tree purchase or rental, as well as advice for caring for a live tree, visit www.tristarnurseries.com