Do you love the smell of fresh pine, fir or spruce filling your home during the holidays but not the constant sweeping that comes with a dying tree losing its needles all over your living room?
An Alberta farmer has the perfect solution for you.
Greening Christmas
Started as an initiative to make even the whitest Christmas a little “greener,” Farlinger Farms is “renting” Christmas trees for the second year in a row.
“These are live Christmas trees, and we can rent these out year after year,” Mike Farlinger told CTV News Edmonton.
Around 40 million Christmas trees are cut every year in North America. Of that number, between 3 and 6 million are cut annually from Canadian Christmas tree farms and native pine and fir stands.
That’s a lot of forest waste, lost oxygen and carbon sequestration for one holiday!
Rather than cutting down trees to die, filling up landfills, or being burned a month later, the service provides a sustainable option to simplify your holidays.
The solution?
Rent a live tree.
How it works
Farlinger explains, “It has the fabric pot, and it has the soil in there and whatnot, and you take it home, and you keep it as a house plant for up to 24 days.”
This is an eco-friendly alternative to traditionally cut-down Christmas trees, but it’s about the same price as a regular tree.
It’s just $50 a tree to rent, plus a $50 deposit that you’ll get back after returning your tree come New Year.
For an extra $100, they’ll drop it off and pick it up the tree for you as well!
Because these trees are kept alive, you can even start a new holiday tradition and watch your tree grow!
“Our trees can be used year after year by the same family, and when they grow too large to be enjoyed as Christmas trees, they will be planted where they can continue to produce oxygen, contribute to the ecosystem, and serve as wildlife habitat,” wrote the Farm.
Where to rent one
The family-run farm is located only a few minutes east of Edmonton. With over 4,000 trees in moveable pots, they’re Edmonton’s only sustainable Christmas Tree farm.
The farm has blue and white spruce and Scotch pines to choose from, and right now, the aesthetic of these growing trees lined up is perfect for a Charlie brown-esque Christmas.
While the trees may be little, in a few years, they’ll be larger, handsome trees you may even want to plant permanently.
“If you decide that you like that tree, you can purchase it and put it in your yard, and you can keep it there forever,” Farlinger said.
So, if you still need to get your Christmas tree, you can head here to reserve one!
Happy Green Holidays!
