Christmas hacks: How to make your festive tree look special

Every year a tree is put up in Trafalgar Square, donated by the City of Oslo

Real or fake - that's the debate, for Christmas trees at least.

And, if it's your job to grow them, then there's really only one side of the debate you're going to take.

"These plastic trees... they will never break down," says Andrew Ingram, who runs The Tree Barn in the aptly-named Christmas Common in Oxfordshire. "They will still be sitting in a landfill site in a 1,000 years time.

"Get a decent tree. Get a good, fresh-grown tree, a real tree.

"Don't worry about the fact that you're cutting a living thing because us growers, whenever we cut a tree down, we replace it with at least one and possibly two more trees so there's a constant cycle.

"We're locking up carbon dioxide while they're growing and producing oxygen and it's a thoroughly environmental thing to do."

Christmas tree facts

The biggest human Christmas tree, which set a new Guinness World Record, was formed in Honduras earlier this month - 2,945 people took part.

As many as 25,000 insects have been found inside a single Christmas tree, according to research from the University of Bergen. The heat inside a home can wake up bugs including spiders, mites and moths from hibernation.

A couple in Yeovil spent five years turning their hedge into a Christmas pudding - they revealed the design back in 2008.

Christmas trees cause injury to about 1,000 people a year, according to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents. Christmas lights cause another 350 trips to hospital.

The most expensively dressed Christmas tree was valued at 41,329,531 AED (£6,975,880) and was on show in the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE in 2010, according to Guinness World Records.

Andrew sells between 7,000 and 7,500 trees in the run-up to 25 December.

"You walk through the yard and there's all the trees here and there's a lovely smell. There's the scent of trees. We're just beginning to feel Christmassy now," he says.

"When people are coming to buy a Christmas tree, it's a great event. Everybody's happy and you see people walking out with their tree over their shoulder and big smiles."

Hack your tree - get tips from an expert

It may be a pain to drag it home, but a heavy Christmas tree is an absolute must if you want to make sure you've picked a winner.

"If you pick up a tree and it feels light it means it's lost water, it's lost humidity out of the tree," says Andrew Ingram.

"The key to having a good tree that's going to hold its needles is to have plenty of moisture in it.

"If you're starting with something that's dry or dry-ish, you're never going to win."

His other top tip - make sure the stand you put it in can be topped up with water - just like flowers in a vase.

Do you put an angel or a star at the top of the tree?

Andrew is obviously an expert when it comes to spotting a top spruce, but when it comes to his own Christmas tree, often it tends to be a bit shabby.

"We tend to have whatever's left over in the yard at the end, when everybody else has left on 24 December. I don't earmark one earlier in the year," he says.

Although he's an expert when it comes to growing trees, when it comes to decoration, he tends to leave it in his wife's hands.

"Personally I rather like one or two colours... White, gold and red is a very good combination," he suggests.

And, the most important thing when it comes to Christmas trees - what does his family put on the top of their spruce?

"A star. Definitely a star."

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