Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, We're Happy to Reuse You

The girls said goodbye to the Christmas tree today. This is the longest I've ever left it up. I'm one of those who feel that once the holiday is done, it's done. I'm ready to move on. Every year, I agonize for a few minutes about what it means, environmentally, to buy a new Christmas tree. I feel a little better living in Montreal, where the city picks up our trees and recycles them into woodchips. I recently read that an Australian researcher did a study comparing the carbon footprint of a real tree and an artificial tree and found that getting a real tree was more environmentally sound than getting an artificial one unless the user kept the artificial tree for over twenty years.

I decided to keep "using" our tree beyond Christmas this year in two ways. First, Ninna and I clipped branches from the tree to keep in jars for a few weeks so we can continue to enjoy their smell. We added strips of fabric to give them a little more personality:

Secondly, I sawed off a piece of the trunk, with which I plan to make these. Hopefully I'll be posting them in the future. In the meantime, this has been added to the creative clutter of our house:

What all of this boils down to is that I will do as many things as I can to justify having a real tree every year because I have no intention of stopping, and I'm pretty sure my two chicks would agree with that sentiment.