Scottish Christmas Trees

One of the biggest Christmas trade fairs is the Christmasworld Trade Show, held this year in late January. Their predictions for this Christmas make for an interesting read, especially since it’s held so early in the year. According to The Independent’s review of the trade show, this Christmas’ theme should be raw, exotic and feminine with bold colors in the crimsons, deep Bordeaux reds and lemon greens.

If those predictions are true, we’ll be in for an entertaining Christmas. Crimsons and Bordeaux reds are no strangers to the festive seasons often featuring in the decorations that adorn Christmas trees each year. It’s the raw, exotic and feminine style that will be interesting – perhaps we’ll dress down our Christmas trees this year, perhaps, as The Independent suggests, decorating our trees with “Asian flower patterns or ethnic African prints decorated with gemstones, sequins and satin ribbons.”

Predicting trends is always difficult, and while trying to follow them makes life interesting, there’s nothing like a really good old-fashioned Christmas. The perfume of a real Christmas tree, the tinsel, baubles and lights that decorate the tree, and the faithful angel that perches on top – it’s tradition, and for many, a feeling of stability and security. There’s also the family tradition that goes into decorating a tree – have you decided who gets to put the angle on top this year?

As we get closer to Christmas, we’ll have a better idea as to the direction that trends will take us. It will be interesting to look back at this post, and to the article in The Independent to see how accurate they were.  I hope they do run true this year, I like the idea of exotic bold colours, African prints and perhaps spending time with the little ones decorating cards with gemstones, sequins and satin ribbons. First, I need to be sure we have a Christmas tree – perhaps you should order your Christmas tree now, just to be sure you don’t miss out.

We’re beginning preparations for Christmas 2011, we have 250,000 trees in the ground made up of Fraser Fir, The Nordman Fir, and The Norway  Spruce. Despite the weather  the trees are doing very well and have completed their growing for this seaso. We can now concentrate on shearing the trees for this Christmas.

We’ve been producing and selling UK grown, freshly cut Christmas trees for  8 years all from our online shop. It gives us huge pleasure to send customers our beautiful trees in the knowledge they will be proudly displayed in homes the length and breadth of the country, then filled with Christmas decorations!

We are just finalising our range of Christmas lights and decorations for this season and for the first time will bring you some ideas on what ‘trends’ will be popular for Christmas 2011!

So … watch this space.

It’s becoming a tradition at Christmas. People climb into their cars, or take special buses, then tour around their local towns or cities just to view the Christmas lights on show – and some of those light shows are absolutely brilliant. I know there are many who do decorate their homes that are already either planning or putting together their light show. It can take thousands of lights to make some of their show pieces, and the light of choice today is the LED – and for good reason too.

LEDs use less energy and create far less heat compared to standard light bulbs. The technology is such that if one LED fails, the remaining lights will continue to operate. This is in contrast to the string lights of old, where one blown bulb would render the whole string useless, until you found and replaced the faulty bulb that is. LEDs have long life spans as well as making them ideal for use year after year.

Are you going to dress up your home with a brilliant light show? If so, we have all the lights you need including:

• Traditional fairy lights
• LED string lights
• Connectable lights
• Micro lights
• Net/Icicle lights
• Cluster lights
• Rope lights, and
• Decorative lights

Of course, lights will create the show, however, you also need the power packs and power leads to keep them going, and we can supply them as well.  We can also supply a range of battery powered Christmas lights for use in areas where you’d rather not be connected to mains power. Christmas has become synonymous with festivities, Christmas trees and exquisitely planned Christmas light shows. We can supply the lights. Do you have the artistic flair to put together a light show?

If not, that doesn’t mean you can’t light up your home for your own enjoyment – just putting the lights together is an exciting time for the family. Christmas is not that far away – order your lights now before it’s too late and you’ll receive them in plenty of time to decorate your home.

Christmas trees are returning to the workplace in greater numbers each year. Unfortunately they are often the imitation type, made from plastic and aluminium. There’s nothing that brings home the message of Christmas like the look, feel and perfume of a real Christmas tree, and they can be easy to set up and easy to care for.

Whether your workplace is an office, a shop front or a factory, there is always room for a Christmas tree. I noticed last year one business that involved their customers in the decoration of their tree. Each customer was invited to hang a bauble or piece of tinsel – the end result was a very attractive Christmas tree, and one in which the customers had a little ownership in. It was a neat little piece of marketing.

One of the benefits of a real Christmas tree is the range of trees available, from both cut or potted, and the range of sizes. You can have a tree that is small enough to sit on a table, or large six foot plus tree that would look grand in any corner, especially all dressed up. The downside to a real Christmas tree is that you really do need to order one early if you want to secure a tree to meet your needs.

By ordering a tree early, you can guarantee the size and type of tree – you can even have your Christmas tree delivered to your door, all ready for decorating. The workplace doesn’t have to be a dreary place in the lead up to Christmas. Dress up your workplace with a brightly decorated Christmas tree and share the good cheer of the festive season.

It may only be August, and Christmas may be several months away, but now is the time to consider your Christmas tree options and we suggest a live potted Christmas Tree. With care, live potted Christmas trees last for several years, always looking great, and reduce the need for disposal after Christmas. Live Christmas trees also bring back a little of the original Christmas feeling where a whole town would decorate a large living Christmas tree year after year.

We at Scottish Christmas Trees  have an ulterior motive for this suggestion as well – we always sell out well before Christmas and we hate to see people missing out. With deliveries scheduled to start in mid October, you can have your potted tree acclimatizing in your yard well before Christmas – this prolongs the tree’s life and ensures it’s fresh and vibrant when you’re ready to take it indoors. You have two choices in potted Christmas tree – the traditional Norway Spruce and the very popular Fraser Fir.

The Norway Spruce is available in six sizes ranging 70cm (2ft4ins) to 190cms (6ft 4ins), and because it’s alive it should not lose to many needles inside the home. However, you will need to keep it well watered and away from direct heat sources like heaters and fires. A nicely decorated Norway Spruce looks on either a table or counter, or in the corner all lit up a like a – like a Christmas Tree, of course.

The Fraser Fir has become hugely popular for a number of reasons. It has a great perfume and is covered in soft dark green needles that are a little friendlier to young hands. This tree is available in five sizes from 110cm (3ft7ins) to 210cm (6ft10ins).

It may only be August, however, we will start to deliver early orders of these trees in around eight weeks – and that’s not a lot of time. We know we sell out early so get your orders in now so you’ll not be disappointed.

Here at Scottish Christmas Trees we are busy taking delivery of christmas baubles and christmas lights. Each day brings more deliveries of richly coloured baubles. Yesterday we received a large delivery of all our Christmas tree stands, the wrought iron stands are very stylish and are hand painted in a seasonal design.
Next week our Christmas lights will be arriving, and includes a large selection of connectable LED christmas lights.

Disposing of Christmas trees can be a real issue for some people yet it needn’t be. Here is one novel way to deal with your Christmas tree.

First, be sure to remove all decorations including lights and especially tinsel. Lay an old sheet or blanket on the floor and gently lay your tree down on the sheet or blanket. If there are two people working together, this makes taking the tree outside easier. Just wrap the tree, grab an end each, and take it outside.

Christmas trees were once living. If you place your tree outside and keep it reasonably hydrated then you may get another month from the tree. Needle drop will be much higher as the tree ages, but since it’s outside this shouldn’t matter.

Place the tree back in its stand, or find another method of keeping the tree upright. Place dried berries, pieces of suet (yes suet) and wild bird treats on the branches of the tree. Step back and over time the wild birds in your area will use your old Christmas tree as a haven and food source. Eventually all the needles will have dropped off.

Once the needles have dropped off, hire a mulcher and mulch the bare trunk and branches. Spread this over your garden late in spring to help keep moisture in your garden and the weeds down.

A Christmas tree with multiple uses – you enjoy it over Christmas, the bird life gets to enjoy it after Christmas, and your garden gets to enjoy it in late spring.

From all of us here at Scottish Christmas Trees – have a wonderful and safe Christmas. Be sure to check back with us in 2010 for news on our next crop of award-winning Christmas trees.

As we wind down and look forward to a well earned rest during the Christmas-New Year period, it’s a good time to reflect on what has been a great year here at Scottish Christmas Trees.  It has been exciting yet at times challenging. We had a lot of rain when we didn’t really want it, but we survived and, more importantly, so too did our trees.

We were very proud and very honoured to win the best pot grown Christmas tree category at the 2009 British Christmas Tree Growers Association (BCGTA) competition. As a team, it is recognition for the amount of care and attention we give all our Christmas trees. The tree shown here is our award winning potted Norway Spruce Christmas tree.

Our biggest challenge has come in the last month as we did our best to supply as many Christmas trees as possible. Unfortunately for some, we completely sold out of all our Christmas trees, potted and cut. The challenge now is to try and produce even more for next Christmas. Since Christmas trees have a 10-12 month growth period, it will indeed be a real challenge.

It has once again been shown how popular potted and freshly cut Christmas trees are. We get requests to send our Christmas trees all over Britain – a task we are happy to fulfill. We even managed to save a few Christmas trees for our highly successful open day earlier this month.

After a short break it will be back to work preparing for next year’s crop of Christmas trees – it’s a good thing we love our job!

There are many people visiting our website hoping we have Christmas trees still in stock. Unfortunately, they are leaving disappointed. We are disappointed we can’t help them too, however, we do have one or two suggestions to make.

My first suggestion is to simply bookmark our home page in your browser. Better yet, create a Christmas folder in your bookmark section and save us to the folder.  Next year, as Christmas approaches, you will have a reminder sitting there. Contact us early in November and you can order your Christmas tree for delivery on a day to suit.

A second suggestion is to subscribe to the posts on this page. Throughout the year we post regular snippets on Christmas trees, news relating to the progress of next season’s Christmas trees, and helpful tips for looking after potted Christmas trees, if you have one.

Real Christmas trees seem to be increasing in popularity every year. We seem to be selling more and selling out earlier as each year passes.  By bookmarking our site, or subscribing to our feed, you will at least get some sort of reminder as Christmas gets closer next year.

Remember, we only sell real Christmas trees, cut or in pots, that have come direct from our farms here in Scotland. You cannot get any fresher than that.

Potted Christmas trees are great, really. They are the kind of purchase you make once every five or six years – if they grow too big that is. Looking after your potted Christmas tree over the Christmas period is the first step to ensuring your tree does survive.

Looking after potted Christmas trees is really no different to looking after cut Christmas trees. If you take good care of the potted tree, you should experience little in the way of needle drop and the tree should look like bright and fresh all day long. It certainly shouldn’t have that droopy look that some plants seem to get when brought inside.

Remember, it’s winter and the potted Christmas tree is acclimatised to that. Keeping it as cool as possible is therefore an important part of looking after your tree. Simple tasks like switching the Christmas lights off overnight can help a lot – it gives the tree a break from any heat generated by the lights.

Keeping your potted tree well watered is the second important part of looking after your tree. Whilst inside, the soil should never completely dry out.  Keeping the soil moist allows the tree to absorb as much water as it needs when it needs it. Let it dry out and the first thing the tree will do is stop water flowing to the needles – the result, of course, is dropped needles.

Look after your potted Christmas tree – there are only two steps – keep it cool and keep it well watered, and it will survive the Christmas period. Look after it well after Christmas and it will survive through to next Christmas – but that is a story for another day.