What to Do with Dead Christmas Tree? 12 Ideas

Don’t know What to Do with Dead Christmas Tree after all the fun and excitement of Christmas? Here are 12 ideas to recycle it!

When the festivities of Christmas come to an end, the question of What to Do with Dead Christmas Tree may arise. Instead of discarding it without a second thought, here are practical ideas to give your tree a meaningful afterlife.

22 Best Outdoor Christmas Plants | Living Christmas Trees

What to Do with Dead Christmas Tree

1. Create a Brush Pile for Birds and Wildlife

You can use your dead Christmas tree to create a brush pile; throw in some twigs, leaves, and logs in your garden, and the Christmas tree can be used as its base.

It’ll help redirect the small animals and birds during the winter months. The dead tree will offer much-needed protection from chill to the animals and act as a source of food.

2. Create a DIY Bird Sanctuary

It’s an excellent idea to keep the tree strategically in the garden and place some birdhouses and feeders on or in it. This way, the birds can appreciate your tree, too.

You can also go a step further and decorate it, fill bird feeders with edible seeds, and hang them from the branches/boughs to attract the birds to their new home.

3. Replant It for the Next Christmas

If you’ve got a living Christmas tree with the root ball intact, replanting it for the following Christmas is a good idea. It might be more than 11 months, but that only gives us all the more reasons to start early.

Check out these Houseplants That Can be Used as Christmas Tree Alternatives

4. Edge Flowerbeds and Walkways

Instead of using it for a bonfire, slice up the trunk of your Christmas tree into thin discs and use them to edge walkways and flowerbeds. This is an excellent way to use your Christmas tree and create something beautiful and functional.

5. Keep Your Perennials Warm

You can cut off the boughs from the dead Christmas tree and lay them around the roots of the perennial plants. This mulching will protect them from cold temperatures and also reduce the chances of frost heaving.

6. Use Dead Christmas Tree Trunk for Pot Risers

If you have a decent-sized Christmas tree, you can cut the trunk into pieces of different lengths and use them as pot risers, or you can get creative with it and make a rolling plant stand out of it.

If you’re unsatisfied with the natural looks and want to protect the wood from deterioration, varnish or paint the tree stump pieces.

Check out our article on beautiful Christmas decoration ideas here

7. Suppressing the Weeds

Instead of sawing and splitting it, you can rent a chipper and mash the trunk into chips. During the following season, you can spread these wood chips as mulch under your plants, suppressing the growth of weeds.

Also, remember that this wood chip mulch will enrich your soil when decomposed.

8. Use It Sticks to Stake Plants

A majority of dead Christmas tree varieties are typically sturdy. And you can use this to your advantage. Strip away the branches and use them to support your plants.

9. Create a Habitat for the Fishes

If you or your neighbor has a pond or live near a lake, give your dead Christmas tree a proper send-off by tossing its branches in the water. The fish can find warm refuge beneath the branches during the harsh winter.

But before you do this — Remove all the needles and tie something into the middle, like a cinder block, a stone, or something as heavy. You should also ensure the dead tree is chemical-free before throwing it overboard.

30 Charming Succulent Christmas Trees

10. Wreath from Old Christmas Tree

Don’t throw away the old Christmas tree. You can use it for a decorative wreath and add it to the porch or the door. Just trim branches with side snips, arrange them in a circle, and secure them using zip ties. Here’s the DIY.

11. Make a Coat Rack

You can transform your dead Christmas tree into a charming DIY coat rack. And you don’t need to do much work.

You can repurpose your tree with minimal effort into a functional, aromatic coat rack that complements your space. Here’s how to make it.

12. Use it for Firewood

Once the holidays are over, consider using your dead Christmas tree for firewood. Just trim the branches, stack them neatly, and let them dry thoroughly.

You can use them as kindling for your fireplace when they dry up. The fragrant pine adds a pleasant aroma, too.

Norfolk Island Pine Care Indoors | Christmas Tree Houseplant