Ditching the traditional Christmas tree

Now it’s December, people throughout the country have been hunting for the perfect Christmas tree.

But that doesn’t always mean a fir, spruce, pine… or plastic.

Christmas is celebrated in summer after all… so why bother with an evergreen tree?

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“We collected driftwood and made a stand, then our children participated in finding lovely seashells, and they just went wild decorating with locally themed items that were found.

“It has lots of sentimental value for us, and yes, every year we reassemble it all and put it in pride of place.

“It’s a great way to celebrate Christmas that feels really summery for us.”

Steve Anderson, who moved to the Tasman town of Ngātīmoti from the United States, has embraced celebrating Christmas in a different season – fashioning a tree from flax flowers.

“Flax flowers are so beautiful and they’re different colours – quite often some are green and some are red – and the seed pods, too, are green and red, so we just thought we would make a kind of pyramid-shaped tree and then decorate it as you do a regular Christmas tree.”

Steve Anderson’s Christmas tree made out of flax.

Supplied / Steve Anderson

Peter Hobson uses a bonsai passed down through generations.

The Atlas cedar has travelled down the country – from Auckland in the 1930s, to Hamilton in the 1970s, then to New Plymouth last year.

“It was from my mother’s collection, which was absolutely huge, and she planted it when she was seven years old in 1938.

“It’s basically been used as a Christmas tree for nearly 100 years.”

Marie Gale in Central Otago grew her own Christmas tree – a Norway Spruce – more than 20 years ago.

“Take it inside with a big saucer under it just a few days before Christmas. Because it’s a live tree, it wouldn’t like being inside – out in the dark, as it were – for too long, so it’s only inside for maybe a week at the most. Decorate it, then, when it’s all done, undecorate it and take it back out again.”

Marie Gale’s Norway spruce Christmas tree.

Supplied / Marie Gale

Alex Lines has been renting her Norway Spruce from the small business Tree Shepherds since 2022. The Christmas tree has grown up alongside her children – from 30 centimetres to almost a metre tall.

“We stumbled across them at our local farmer’s market, which is at Tauranga Primary School on a Saturday morning. They just had a stall set up there with all these baby Christmas trees… we got to choose one, and they numbered it, and we get the same one every year.

“We really like it, and the kids get to know the tree as well, and it’s sort of a nice thing to do – to go to the markets and pick it up every year.”

Alex Lines’ Norway spruce from Tree Shepherds.

Supplied / Alex Lines

Steven Chinnery-Brown started Tree Shepherds after wanting to rent a tree himself but finding no one in New Zealand offered that service.

“There was one lady in London doing it, and there was no one else. So we researched for about a year and thought, you know, it could be a viable business – why not give it a go? And then, yeah, that following year, we bought 300 trees and sort of expanded from there.

“At the moment, we’re renting through two markets locally in Tauranga. Customers come to the markets and, before they can take it home, they can pick their tree. We put it aside and bring it back to the market for them to take home as it gets closer to Christmas. Then they keep the tree for six weeks. They return it in January. We take it back out to our nursery, look after it throughout the year, and then they rent the same tree again the following year.”

The business has grown about 25 to 30 percent each year, with Chinnery-Brown hoping to rent out 150 trees this Christmas.

His goal is to offer a tree that is cheaper than buying one that had been cut down, as well as an environmentally-friendly alternative, with minimal to no waste.

Tree Shepherds has grown about 25 to 30 percent each year offering an environmentally-friendly alternative to a chopped down tree.

Supplied / Steven Chinnery-Brown

“So it’s $60 per tree and then a $40 bond – $100 total. When you return the tree, we refund $40. But as the tree gets bigger, the rental fee will slightly increase. So for a two metre tree, it’ll be around $150.”

Next year, Chinnery-Brown will be opening a hub in Hamilton, then will be looking to expand to Auckland.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand