Christmas Trees – Rent Now; Plant Later

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Rental Christmas trees are all the rage.

Why cut and buy when rental Christmas trees are an option? In fact, if you want to rent a tree for the holidays, you’re not alone. More eco-friendly folks are looking for holiday trees to plant later or recycle after the holidays. But, unfortunately, resources for these trees seems to come and go each year. So, we try to keep this list updated. Sustainable Christmas tree options are out there, and we’ve got a few linked resources to help your find your rental Christmas tree easily. Plus, we update this list every year to help you find the most current Christmas tree rental programs fast and easily!

Want to DIY your holiday decorations from your garden?

If you’d like to learn about growing trees for your garden, decor and more, check out our online gardening classes.  Here we teach lessons about growing trees. So this might help if you’d like to learn to grow an outdoor tree. Or you might find it helpful if you want to replant your living tree. As well, we teach lessons in how to take proper cuttings if you want to DIY your swags. And I’ve included a list of DIY tips later in this article.

Living Greens for Happy Future Generations

Are the holidays over & you don’t know what to do with your old tree?

Don’t just cram your tree into the trash bin. Instead, consider our top five ways to recycle your tree in environmentally friendly ways. In fact, these options are not only easy to do, but they’ll also help improve your garden too.

Every year people seeking sustainable Christmas tree options reach out to us.

Moreover, eco-friendly shoppers are interested in programs that will recycle and/or replant Christmas trees in restoration programs after the holidays. So, I’ve compiled the following list to help you get started finding programs that help take your holiday greens from field to family to forest. This can be a fantastic option when you consider that traditional Christmas trees like Noble Firs and Douglas Firs mature much too large for smaller residential landscapes.

• Some of these tree-cycling programs provide traditional Firs.
• But others have more eclectic tree offerings based on native trees that are needed in local restoration projects.
• And some of these programs encourage you to sponsor a memorial tree or bench or item instead of bringing a tree into your home.
• That’s because these programs help families and friends create living memorial spaces.
• Even NPR decided to cover how popular potted Christmas trees are right now.

Here’s a list of rental Christmas tree services:

• Portland & Eugene , Oregon: In these areas of  Oregon, potted rental holiday trees are available to rent via “The Original Potted Christmas Tree Company.” They select the kind of tree and size. You pay around $200 for a tree rental. After the year turns over, they pick up the trees to plant them.
• Seattle, Washington: Local nursery, Swansons, has discontinued their program local Seattle parks to offer living tree rental programs. It’s really too bad they haven’t continued it because after the holidays, rental trees were planted in a salmon restoration area.
• Bay Area, California: In 2021 we found a new program available from around Carmel, CA northward into the middle-south of the SF Bay Area. Rentxmastree.com supplies a few varieties of potted living trees starting at around $45 (for a pretty small tree), plus delivery fees. They’ll drop off the potted tree for you to enjoy for around 30 days. And afterwards they retrieve the tree. Then it is returned to their nursery to care for it. As well, they do sell living trees.
• New York and Beyond: This program, Rent-A-Christmas, offers more than just Christmas tree rentals. They’ll rent you everything for Christmas. They offer indoor Christmas trees, outdoor holiday lights, wreaths, and almost anything you can think of to decorate for the Christmas season. Plus, they indicate they serve the entire United States (or at least 48 states).

Simple DIY instead of rented, potted Christmas tree ideas.

1. In years past I’ve settled for sheared rosemary shrubs for a living, potted Christmas tree. Bonus! I planted it into my small herb garden later.
2. You could purchase a cut tree and mulch it into your garden after the holidays.
3. Or, buy a big, live conifer to replant. I’ve done this. But if you do, be sure you have room for something enormous!
4. Shop for a dwarf conifer to decorate and later plant into smaller spaces. Some, like Picea glauca ‘Nana’ naturally grows to look like a Christmas tree, so it might be a great choice.
5. Maybe decorate houseplants with lights. Indoor potted citrus trees are great for this!
6. Live on a large property? Dig up a volunteer tree that popped up in the “wrong” spot & enjoy it as your DIY Christmas tree. After the holidays, help it adjust to going back outdoors. Then plant it in a better spot!