Branching Out

Mont Tremblant

Sat here at my writing desk at the Hotel Quintessence, in Mont Tremblant Canada, looking out of my window and watching the latest snow storm sweeping through and covering the fir trees in huge white blankets of snow, I am struggling to take a photograph to illustrate just how beautiful they look. The storm really is that fierce. In fact the power has gone 6 times in the last 5 minutes alone which is confusing the hell out of my iPad.

Did you know that it takes about 8 years for a Christmas tree to grow to a point where it can be cut for market and that’s 8 years on top of the 3 years its already taken for the seed to grow into the sapling that’s planted out. All Christmas trees have to be grown from seed as they don’t have the ability to grow from cuttings. It’s a long process.

The UK is now self sufficient in the production of Christmas trees of which there are about 10 different varieties and each year approximately 6 million trees are purchased in the UK alone. That’s a lot of timber chopped down for what purpose? To decorate a space for a few days a year. And do you even know why you do it? I didn’t until I did some research and even then I’m not sure we truly know.

The first mention of a Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510, but the origins of decorating trees goes back way beyond Christmas celebrations and is thought to have been originally adopted as a way to ward off the devil. Originally decorated with edible goodies such as apples, nuts and even dates the tree was used by country folk as a way to ward off evil and wish for a new bountiful season. But the decorated tree as we more familiarly know it today probably originated in Germany. Interestingly the Germans were concerned even during the 19th century with deforestation and the first artificial trees appeared roundabout the same time. These were made from dyed goose feathers.

We as a nation will produce about 30% more waste over the Christmas period than usual most of which is recyclable being mainly, paper and glass, but disappointingly of the 9,000 tonnes of Christmas trees thrown out after the festivities, only about 10% will be recycled with the rest finding their way into landfill. And don’t be sat their all smug because you have an artificial tree either. Most of the fake trees are made from PVC and have a useful house life of about 6 years before again finding their way into landfill sites. Unfortunately PVC takes a very long time to break down and it’s longevity is calculated in centuries rather than years.

I have, however seen some truly creative trees this year, and while we don’t fully understand why we do it we obviously enjoy doing it. Happy Holidays.