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Where old Christmas trees go to die

Old Christmas trees on pedestrian bridge over Rte. 2 on Arlington/Belmont line

There's probably a good reason why the pedestrian bridge over Rte. 2 at the Arlington/Belmont line is packed with all the old Christmas trees that David Weininger spotted this morning.

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I once was tall with glitter
So proud I was a post on Twitter
But now I am old
No more the glow
And you treat me like trash and litter

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Today is only the 11th day of Christmas! Everyone knows the song, but apparently not that it STARTS on Christmas Day, not ends. Keep your trees until at least Jan 6 (Epiphany).

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and fresh all the way to Epiphany if you put it up on December 1st.

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I put mine up on Dec 10-11 and the tree was pretty dry by Christmas. I got a wreath around the 7th or so, and it was looking dry by the 18th.

The tree got hot water in its large water stand and had its very own humidifier. The wreath got misted with water as per directions several times a day.

I don't know how people who put their trees up on Black Friday manage to have a tree up by Christmas.

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maybe try watering your tree next year, it'll last longer

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Well, it doesn't have to go up right away once December hits.

Of course, if you celebrate Orthodox Christmas/Epiphany, it's a really long ride.

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Unfortunately, more and more people I know insist on putting up their tree the first chance they get after Thanksgiving.

Now, as a kid, we used to buy our tree the first or second weekend of December (ah yes, the days where every used car lot and ice cream stand on the North Shore became an instant Christmas tree lot for three weeks) . However, we then put in in a steel bucket filled with water and left it out on our back porch - the porch was enclosed in screens with no stairs, but was otherwise open to the weather. The water, which would freeze in the bucket, and exposure to the cold kept the tree nice and fresh, and we would put it up and decorate it two days before Christmas.

I can only remember one year where, once set up, the tree didn't make it to Epiphany before starting to significantly shed needles.

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I don't know, I'm paying all that money for a dead tree, I have to get rid of it by the first week of January, I'm spending all that time decorating it and dealing with the needles... you betcha I'm going to keep it up as long as possible. Not doing all that work and spending that money for just a week. Besides, it brightens up the room.

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My college roommates and I had a beautiful tree one year - lasted a long time.

While temperature does make a difference (this apartment was badly insulated & poorly heated), the biggest factor was explained by our grew-up-on-a-farm roommate who cut the tree himself somewhere in the hills up in New Hampshire: Cut the tree after the ground freezes.

It makes a huge difference. We had that tree up from early December through most of January. Finally three of us outvoted the fourth that it had to come down before Candlemas.

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You-cut trees are pretty inexpensive, too, compared to anything you might buy in the Boston area. When you consider that you're going to need a car to get it anyway, you might as well make a trip out of it and cut your own. There are a lot of tree farms in western Mass where you can get an amazing tree for not much money.

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Belmont, as usual, can't be bothered to be responsible for its own trash.

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The infant trees are invading.

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It is obvious that someone put them there to get noticed. And this picture making it to UHub indicates they people who did this were successful.

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I noticed it during my morning commute today (westbound on route 2)

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Jerry Seinfeld covered this phenomenon 20 years ago …

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Easy - the overpass is being converted to a wildlife overpass. It was easier to run the trees in now with a bobcat, before the deck is covered with dirt & sod.

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My hindbrain processed these as "tumbleweeds", since it looks like the breezeway in one of my elementary schools often looked ... but with trees and not tumbleweeds.

Here's hoping that they aren't disposed of in the way that my brother and his family dispose of their tree (spectacular conflagration).

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