What to do when your Christmas tree dies before Christmas

One year our Christmas tree died the first week of Christmas. Like, pine needles falling all over the place, tree is brown, kind of dead. We bought it the day before Thanksgiving because trees in South Florida cost an arm and a leg and I’ll be damned if we didn’t get our money’s worth.

So what do you do when your Christmas tree dies before Christmas?

You might be able to return it!

That’s right, sometimes you can return a Christmas tree if it dies too quickly. It never hurts to ask about the return policy before buying or even once your tree dies.

Or you can follow some of our other suggestions listed below.

What to do when your Christmas tree dies before Christmas

Here are a few things you can do when your Christmas tree dies before the holiday is officially over:

• Return the tree and ask to swap for a new one
• Take the tree out of the stand and saw a piece off the end of the trunk, this allows for the tree to drink more water if the end has already died
• Try drilling a hole in the side of the tree, low enough that the water covers the hole
• If your tree still doesn’t drink water, try reducing the fire hazard by limiting the amount of time the lights are on or stop lighting the tree all together
• Make sure you know where your fire extinguisher is just in case! Most lights aren’t fire hazards these days, but you can never be too prepared when it comes to fire safety
• Be prepared to pick sweep up pine needles every day until your Christmas tree is gone. Dead trees shed like crazy!

While, you can return your tree. I didn’t.

I went back to the tree stand and complained that our tree never drank any water. I’m not kidding. It never drank any water. None. Here’s a picture of Robert in front of the dead tree. Can you see how brown it is? Ignore the fact that my son has his arm through the neck hole of his tank top. Toddlers, amiright?

I was worried it would be a fire hazard so I went back to complain. The sales lady was quick to tell me that she’d happily give us a new one, if I bring the old one back. The only problem was that I didn’t have the time or energy to take everything off the tree with two kids running around. Nope!

Following the suggestions above helped us keep the tree all season long without too much of an issue.

Lesson learned: don’t decorate your tree until you are sure it is drinking water.

Another lesson learned: fake trees aren’t the end of the world!

How to get the best deal on fake trees

The best way to get a good deal on fake trees is to buy them immediately after Christmas. You’ll see trees deeply discounted then.

We bought ours at Target for $12 right after our tree died. We used it for 4 years before upgrading to a bigger tree (head to Instagram to see our new one).

Need a fake Christmas tree right now because yours died?

Head here to see a list of my favorite Christmas trees from Amazon.

This one below is a great deal if you can get it under $65.

Want more budget friendly Christmas ideas?

Here are a few of my most popular Christmas posts:

• 7 Christmas Gifts the Whole Family Can Enjoy
• 125 Easy DIY Christmas Ornaments
• Encourage Kids to Declutter Toys Before Christmas with This Hack
• How to Ask Grandparents for Monday Instead of Toys This Christmas
• How to Get The Best Deals on Christmas Cards

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