Chesham Rd,
Berkhamsted,
HP4 2SZ
Located right on the A41 Berkhamsted/Chesham junction, just 7 minutes from M25 J20.  Easy access from Watford, St Albans, North London,  Aylesbury & Milton Keynes.  For Google Maps, click here 

Where finding the perfect tree is a Christmas adventure

How to Choose a Real Christmas Tree

Freshness is the starting point. The perfect tree is your choice

We’ve been growing and selling Christmas trees since 1989, and after watching a lot of people choose a lot of trees, our most useful advice is surprisingly simple.

First, make sure you’re buying a properly fresh Christmas tree.

Once you know it’s fresh, the rest comes down to personal choice.

Nordmann Fir or Norway Spruce. Expensive or inexpensive. Dense or open. Perfectly symmetrical or slightly wonky.

We can explain the differences. But only you know which tree is perfect for you.

How do I know if a Christmas tree is really fresh?

Christmas trees have an unusual supply chain.

Almost an entire year’s demand is compressed into a few weeks. Large growers supplying retailers across the country have enormous numbers of trees to harvest and distribute in a very short period.

They simply can’t wait for each tree to be sold before cutting the next one. Harvesting has to begin ahead of demand.

That’s not a criticism. It’s the practical reality of supplying Christmas trees nationally.

But it does make one question particularly important: when a retailer says a tree is fresh, how do they know?

A tree being delivered recently doesn’t necessarily mean it was harvested recently. If the retailer didn’t grow or harvest the tree themselves, they are dependent on information passed to them through their supply chain.

That doesn’t mean the tree isn’t fresh. It means the person selling it may not have first-hand knowledge of when it was cut.

A grower-retailer is different.

At Christmas Tree Place, we grow, harvest and sell our own trees. We decide when harvesting starts, deliberately leave it exceptionally late and continue cutting throughout the selling season.

At Berkhamsted, many of our trees travel from where they were growing to where you choose them in metres, not miles. Our other plantations are only a few miles away.

There are a few hundred Christmas tree farms around Britain selling trees they have grown themselves. Christmas Tree Place is one of them.

We don’t have to ask when our trees were cut. We know.

Once you know it’s fresh, buy the tree you like

There is no universally perfect Christmas tree.

Some people want a beautifully symmetrical, densely branched tree. Others prefer something more open. Some want wide. Some need narrow. Some want enormous. Others want a little tree that fits perfectly into a corner.

Once the tree is fresh, these are choices — not measures of whether one tree is better than another.

Is an expensive Christmas tree better than a cheap one?

Not necessarily.

Price reflects characteristics that many customers are prepared to pay more for — size, shape, density and symmetry amongst them.

But paying more doesn’t guarantee that you’ll like the tree more.

Christmas trees are grown outdoors, not manufactured. They don’t all grow into identical shapes, and we don’t think they need to.

A tree one customer walks straight past may be exactly the tree the next customer wants.

If the cheaper fresh tree is the one you like, buy the cheaper tree.

Nordmann Fir or Norway Spruce?

There isn’t a correct answer. They’re different Christmas trees.

Nordmann Fir has soft, dark green needles and excellent needle retention.

Norway Spruce is the traditional Christmas tree. Its needles are sharper and it requires a little more care, but it has wonderful character and that unmistakable Christmas-tree smell.

We can explain the differences. You decide which differences matter to you.

What shape should a Christmas tree be?

Whatever shape you like.

There’s a tendency to talk about Christmas trees as though the objective is to find the most perfectly symmetrical one. It isn’t.

The objective is to find the tree you want in your home.

An open tree can be wonderful for large decorations. A narrow tree may be perfect for an awkward space. A dense tree can look magnificent covered in lights. And a slightly eccentric tree can have far more character than a perfectly symmetrical one.

What size Christmas tree should I buy?

Measure your space before you come — and don’t just measure the ceiling.

Think about the width available, furniture, your tree stand and whatever you’re planning to put on top.

Christmas trees have an irritating habit of looking perfectly reasonable outside and considerably larger once they’re standing in your sitting room.

And remember the star.

When should I buy my Christmas tree?

There isn’t one magic date.

If you buy a properly fresh tree and look after it, you don’t necessarily need to wait until the middle of December.

What matters is when the tree was harvested and what happens to it once you get it home.

That’s one reason we harvest exceptionally late and continue cutting throughout the selling season.

How do I keep my Christmas tree fresh?

Think of a cut Christmas tree as an enormous cut flower.

It needs water and it doesn’t particularly like heat.

Use a stand that holds water and keep it topped up. Avoid putting the tree immediately beside a radiator, wood burner or another strong heat source.

Start with a fresh tree, keep it watered and don’t cook it.

Why come to Christmas Tree Place?

Not because we’re going to tell you that nobody else can grow a fresh Christmas tree.

There are a few hundred Christmas tree farms around Britain selling trees they’ve grown themselves, and many of them will grow very good trees.

What we offer is an enormous choice — fresh Christmas trees in different varieties, sizes, shapes, grades and prices — together with the whole Christmas Tree Place experience.

Where finding the perfect tree is a Christmas adventure.

Our advice in one sentence?

Make sure it’s fresh. Then buy the tree you love