The holiday season is officially underway, and millions of families around the world are beginning to deck the halls. From draping green garland over the fireplace mantle to hanging handmade wreaths on the front door, decorating your home is perhaps one of the easiest - and most fun - ways to get into the holiday spirit. However, perhaps the most important component is snagging the ultimate Christmas tree.
There’s nothing that embodies Christmas more than trimming a Fraser fir or white spruce with lights and ornaments. Much like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, some families make it a tradition to cut down their own tree. Of course, there’s also the tidier option of displaying an artificial Christmas tree in your home. There’s no wrong way to decorate a Christmas tree. However, there may be a wrong way to clean one.
A woman on TikTok recently went viral when she shared with her followers an “unpopular opinion” - that we should be washing our christmas trees. This week, TikToker Rhema shared a video of herself washing down her artificial Christmas tree in the bathtub. In the clip, which has been viewed more than 1.7m times, Rhema began by taking apart her artificial tree piece by piece.
First, she sprayed the top piece of her fake tree with some pink cleaning liquid. Rhema then ran the faucet and squeezed Dawn dish soap into the tub with the tree inside, running the artificial tree under the faucet. A few bits of dirt rinsed off in the bathtub and ran down the drain, as Rhema shook the remaining water off her tree. However, the viral clip led many people to wonder whether they should be doing the same with their Christmas trees this year.
“The water being clear told me I don’t need to do this,” one person commented.
“There’s a reason we store it in a giant plastic bag! No dust, no dirt,” another user shared, while someone else candidly wrote: “I simply could not be bothered.”
One person aptly pointed out that dunking an artificial tree into a bathtub filled with water may lead to mildew or mould, depending on the type of plastic tree. Others explained that they’re unable to clean their tree in the tub because it already comes with lights. Despite the skepticism, there’s no harm in shaking off dust from your artificial tree after it’s been in storage for a year.
Balsam Hill, an artificial Christmas tree retailer, has shared its guidelines on how to care for your tree and preserve its shelf life. First, set up the tree in a place that’s cool, dry, and away from direct heat or sunlight. Lightly dust the pine needles with a dense fibre duster or a clean, dry cloth at least once a week to prevent dust building up. When it comes to getting mould off an artificial tree, using a pressurised air compressor or a hair dryer on a low, cool setting can remove mould from the tree’s branches.
For Balsam Hill trees, the company suggests avoiding spraying water, soap, or vinegar on the tree because it may affect its lifelike quality. While some TikTok users suggested simply hosing down their trees in the backyard, this could actually damage the plastic needles or metal faux tree trunks of some artificial trees.
When it’s time to finally take down your Christmas tree, place it in a durable storage bag and seal it tightly before storing it in a cool, dry location to protect from moisture or a musty odour. However, if next Christmas rolls around and your tree smells musty, air it out on a covered porch or on the patio for a few days.
Christmas trees are an important part of the holiday season, but one of the biggest advantages of choosing an artificial tree means you can decorate it for years to come. While it’s important to rid your fake tree of dust or dirt, it’s not always necessary to run it in a bath. Still, how long your artificial Christmas tree lasts is dependent on how well you maintain it.
