Forum Topic

Christmas trees

I really do not know why people spend so much on Christmas trees  just so they can throw them away so many days later. Why not buy an artificial tree. Saves the mess on the floor and all the hassle getting rid of them. Thought we were meant to save the trees.

Barbara Stevens ● 879d20 Comments

They magically disappeared within hours!  This site has power, fantastic!

Jenny Featherstone ● 853d

We will leave that to you Philippa, your good at telling everybody what to do.

Barbara Stevens ● 859d

So has anybody drawn the Council's attention to the pile of uncollected Christmas trees or is the Rowing Club going to chip the trees when they get round to it?

Philippa Bond ● 859d

What gets me is so many people are moaning about prices of gas electric etc. So why throw money away on a real Christmas tree. Lovely when you have young children to make everything lovely. But surely one that lasts a few years is more economical.

Barbara Stevens ● 861d

Have kept ours bought in a pot from Sainbury’s  3 years ago  £5, grows fast if you take care of it. Eventually it will live in the garden.

Paul Beer ● 861d

The large pile of discarded Xmas trees on the corner outside Thames Rowing Club has not been collected for weeks.  It is really annoying having to walk round them every day.This is the first year they havn't been collected.

Jenny Featherstone ● 861d

Yes, my shed cats do the same, but look into  my fish pond.

Barbara Stevens ● 877d

Yes, Barbara.  It is all about finding the best way of collecting and allowing residents to deal with their no longer wanted Christmas trees so that they do not end up dumped all over the place causing dangerous obstructions.It doesn't matter where in the world it is when they are causing a problem.

Philippa Bond ● 877d

"Oh a shed - what a luxury!"Yeah, when I got it, I had visions of actually working in it. That didn't happen. It is just a more accessible loft, with a roof for cats to sit on, and is on low brick pedestals so that foxes can hide under it, or whatever they do. The more "useful" space that you have the worse it gets.

David Ainsworth ● 878d

Oh a shed - what a luxury!

Philippa Bond ● 878d

It is currently in the shed, with a whole lot of other clutter. It was a whole lot cheaper than a tree, and looked reasonably OK. However I feel that I have broken a lifetime tradition, as well as added to the world's mountain of longlasting pollution. Still, who ain't?

David Ainsworth ● 878d

Philippa, this is PUYNEY. Don't voice your opinion, collections are different than even Richmond.

Barbara Stevens ● 878d

So where are you going to keep it now that the 12 days of Christmas are over?  Is it a bigger hassle climbing in and out of the loft if you have one or is getting a real tree a bigger hassle - or maybe it is for you easy to organise someone else to do that!?  It isn't here!Trying to get the metal base off someone else's real Christmas tree which had frozen on due to the water in it and the freezing weather so that the bare tree could be recycled was a bit of a challenge earlier in the week!I'd have to learn again which real ones aren't supposed to drop their needles... if I had one.  Christmas still comes and goes without a tree.

Philippa Bond ● 878d

As a result of being more lazy and stupid than usual, I had to buy an artificial tree for the first time this Christmas. I was sort of happy that some of the "needles" actually dropped off. My thanks to the clever chaps in the Shenzhen Economic Zone.

David Ainsworth ● 878d

Yes, it does just look like political point scoring but I think giving residents other choices to deal with their trees without too much pressure gives them more flexibility over dealing with something which should be their responsibility anyway.  Surely residents are already told not to put them on the pavement?  If they have no space then they have to try and find some other way to deal with the situation.  Even if they are not quite in the right place in a park they are not blowing around under everyone's feet on the pavements.

Philippa Bond ● 878d

I don't see any evidence the council is doing better or worse than previous years.I joined this forum about 15 years ago and i remember people have complained on and off every couple of years about the time it takes to collect all the trees

Matt Palmer ● 878d

Why highlight the front page article if you don't care what people do with them?  It is an important issue being dealt with by nearly all Councils - but not all in exactly the same way - as in fact some don't collect at all.Surely all of us who care about our own mobility using the pavements together with that of others and the problems that discarded trees cause as a trip hazard for pedestrians, blocking pavements for wheelchairs and buggies and blowing around dangerously when it is windy want solutions that will work for us all?Barbara, I know that you have found your own solution.  I was surprised when I read that an artificial one wasn't the greener answer but I still cringe at the annual massacre I see in the parks and so just don't buy one.Kew Gardens once upon a time used to take them for chipping but of course you had to deliver. Now Councils' parks departments tend to do this.

Philippa Bond ● 878d

I only put this on here because it was highlighting  on the front page of the forum all the Christmas trees blocking pavements etc, in Putney. If you re plant them stick them up your b=m, I don't care that much what anybody does with them.

Barbara Stevens ● 878d

You can rent real Christmas trees and you can also buy a potted one if you think you will be able to keep it alive and/or plant it and use it year after year.I've read that it is greener than buying an artificial one which you will have to use for 12 years to be as 'green' as a real one.As well as kerbside collections during certain post Christmas dates many Councils have collection points in parks where you csn take your Christmas trees and these are then chipped to spread on paths etc.  This is useful if you don't have much or any front garden space.  There is something very special about seeing the tradition of a family taking part in a tradition of collecting a tree, dressing a tree and at the end of its life with you taking all the decorations off and the whole family walking it or dragging it or rolling it to the pile of trees awaiting chipping in the park.  They do smell lovely but I actually prefer to go without unless it is our turn to host the family for Christmas!

Philippa Bond ● 878d

The trees are a crop like any other. If there wasn't a market for them they wouldn't be planted

Sean Hodges ● 878d