Christmas in Maine: Do You have Any Idea How Old Your Tree is?

I've had a fake tree for years at this point.

If I really wanted to know how long I've had my Christmas tree, I could probably just go back through my Amazon purchase history and get it. Otherwise, most people probably don't think twice about their tree. Well, until it's time to take it down, and you've pine needles flying everywhere inside the house.

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Which brings up one of the answers to the question: Do you know how old your tree is? Everything about the longevity and safety of your tree depends on how old it is, but also how well it's taken care of. If you don't give it the right kind of love, it'll suffer. So let's dig into some tree stuff.

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If you're literally curious how old it is, count the rings!

This is pretty obvious. We all learned in grade school that the number of rings on a tree relates to how many years it's been alive. Most Christmas trees are between 7 and 15 years old, on average. So working in the Christmas tree business is an investment. Not only monetarily, but also in the amount of time it takes to grow them.

How long ago was it harvested?

Now this one is tougher to answer, but is also important. Since you can't get exact dates, look for things like, how heavy is the tree? Do the needles fall right off? If the tree's pretty heavy, it probably still has a lot of water inside, and that's a good thing. If needles are flying off, it could be way too dry, and that's dangerous. In fact, a well hydrated tree is ridiculously hard to set on fire. So a real tree can be quite safe.

How long have we been putting up Christmas trees?

This one kind of floored me. In America, the concept of a Christmas tree didn't really catch on until the mid 1800's. Like, what? Christmas trees aren't even 200 years old? That's nuts. Previously, they were thought to be a pretty pagan symbol and were frowned upon for years. I'm glad "they" figured it out. I love my tree!

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Christmas is kind of weird, if you think about it too hard. But in this day and age, it's as much a symbol of family and togetherness as much as anything else. So whatever the holidays mean to you and yours, that's what matters most. You can bring a maple tree inside for all I care, just don't get rid of my Christmas!