The Overlooked Benefits of Real Christmas Trees

In 1800, Queen Charlotte, the German wife of King George III, set up what is thought to be the first Christmas tree in England, at Queen’s Lodge in Windsor.

Decorated Christmas trees already had a long history in Germany, but this was the beginnings of their role as a fashionable part of the festive season for the English upper classes. By the 1850s they were a common sight across the UK. In the US, meanwhile German settlers helped to establish the tradition of displaying trees in the home, decorated with homemade ornaments, by the 1830s.

Some two centuries later, the now-cherished tradition of plonking a newly cut tree in the middle of the living room and covering it with lights and baubles is still alive and well across much of the world. Today, an estimated 25-30 million real Christmas trees are sold annually in the US, and around five million in the UK. Real trees may also be coming back into fashion among younger generations – a 2019 US survey found millennials are 82% more likely than baby boomers to get a live tree.

A millennial myself, I certainly fit this trend. I love real Christmas trees but have had countless conversations (and internal debates) about whether getting one is overindulgent wastefulness or an essential – and ultimately environmentally negligible – part of Christmas.