by Judith Willson

Created on: December 02, 2010

If you are bored with the traditional Christmas tree and don’t fancy another year of having a carpet full of pine needles to deal with, it might be time to consider an alternative.  Christmas trees, real and fake, are basically things to hang decorations on and there are plenty of far more interesting alternatives.

A fruit tree 

Most fruit trees at this time of year won’t have any leaves, but if they have enough twigs you are in business. This is an ideal alternative Christmas tree for the environmentally conscious. Nothing goes to waste, you can plant the tree straight after the holidays, and you’ll get fresh organic produce later on.  A pear tree is the obvious choice but go with any fruit tree you can plant out in the winter (which is most of them). 

A cactus 

Tired of your cat knocking the Christmas tree over or pulling the lights off?  Something good and spiky will sort that out and a huge cactus might be just the sort of incongruous yet appealing thing your living room needs.  Wear gardening gloves to put the decorations on with and you are in business. 

A present pyramid

You’ll need a lot of cardboard boxes of all sizes and a lot of sticky tape.  Put a present in each box.  Don’t worry about appropriate sizes, small presents in big boxes keep everything light and add to the surprise later.  Wrap or decorate and label. Arrange into a tall pyramid, securing with tape as you go.  Once you are finished, stick an angel on top and wrap a string of lights around it.  Dismantling the Christmas pyramid might be an exciting new ritual on Christmas morning. 

An edible Christmas tree

This is another way to cut down on waste.  Unless you have a very large and very hungry family you’ll probably want to keep the tree quite small.  There are different ways to make completely edible Christmas trees but generally you need stiff green vegetables (like celery) for the tree part and colourful fruits or vegetables for the decorations. Wooden skewers or wire aren’t technically speaking edible but will keep the whole thing together.

There is not point spending good time and money on something unnecessary you don’t even want.  If you are bored of standard Christmas trees, but still want something colourful and festive in a corner, then by all means try something a bit different this year. 

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