Many of you will say the loft, barn or spare room, for others maybe it's the garden. For us it is usually the local garden centre (they'll be arriving next week - I asked today - not that I'm already waiting or anything but the lights in our village went up weeks ago!)
One year I bought one off Vente-Privee and it was delivered to my door which was a very easy way of buying a tree, so I wondered to save the needles in the car - has anyone else bought a real tree off a website in France? Is delivery free or reasonable? Who did you use?
Also for those spending their first year here in France - in the supermarkets look out for the sac a sapin noel. It is a giant bag for popping your tree in and it works really well for normal sized tree and some of the money goes to the handicap association.
Funny you should say that. My daughters are watching TV and saw something about the Paddington Bear film that starts soon. I suggested we send the blighter back to Peru where he belongs. I supposed he could send me a schinus molle!
We have such a problem with chenille processionnaire locally that the notion of a pine to replant sends shivers down my spine. I dislike plastic ones and have given up on the ones without roots that lose needles as soon as they are in the car. So, do I buy one with a root and then burn it after or do we look for an alternative. We have a table centrepiece I bought in Norway many years ago. Typical Scandinavian good taste of course. It is too late now but one day I think I might well make a full size one festooned with hooks, little shelves and niches to make cheerful. This year, however, I wish to dissuade the majority here and just decorate nicely...
The children are not coming for Christmas this year, so there will be no tree and we will eat part of the price as we are going to our local restaurant for Christmas lunch.
I will make seasonal decorations from greenery and the winter jasmine in our garden.
I have just ordered mine from www.noel-vert.com and I notice they do the groupement with good reductions if people group together. Will definitely suggest this. I forgot I'm supposed to be baking cakes on Friday! Thanks for reminding me!
Depending on the size of the school there are producers who are quite keen to cooperate with you if you do stuff for the PTA - the girls' school had about 500 pupils so that was a good deal for them. Same for the baker who sold me lovely galettes des rois for 3€ which I then sold on for 6€ (the same price as in his shop) on the same pre-ordered & pre-paid basis. We sold just over 300 so the baker was vv happy as there's no way he'd have sold that many in one go otherwise. It was very rewarding running the PTA but it took a lot of time & effort & on top of work & children so I'm glad I no longer have to ;-)
I started up a Christmas market in the playground to fundraise for school, torchlit with carols and stalls with local artisans selling all sorts of present-type things and edible things like wine & chocolate & honey & gingerbread etc - we sold Christmas trees as well which parents pre-ordered & pre-paid, & gave everyone mulled wine or hot chocolate. One year I made something like 500 star-shaped spiced biscuits & another 200 Christmas tree shaped ones to sell. Never again, it took me all day to bake the brutes... Now I haven't any children left in primaire there's less involvement with that sort of thing.
Tracy that seems a good price - just looked at APEL - very interesting, I know our school has some parents d'eleves but they don't do any fund raising for the school - that's a separate association and it only raises funds for school trips. Will look closer at the APEL website though.
We buy ours through the APEL at school as they are lovely trees and raise money for school funds. Just ordered today and it is 39€ for a 200/225 Nordman. Delivery is 3 euros extra and they encourage us to ask all the neighbours so try asking around your place.
I bought my plastic (real plastic !) xmas tree in Le Foir Fouille in Angoulême in 1989, I paid 20FF and it's still giving great service 25 years on. It now stands 40cm high having lost the top 10cm to rust a few years back !
This means each xmas costs me 0.80 FF which is i'm sure, enough to warm the cockles of that nice Mr Scrooge !
I've found that the ones bought at local supermarkets are rubbish and generally don't survive replanting. However I visited a local sapiniere 3 years ago, bought a medium sized tree with roots and religiously watered it every day. It survived replanting in the garden (which has lousy soil - mostly rock) and it has been dug up each year and survived 3 christmases indoors. So I think the moral is buy a decent quality tree with roots from proper garden/sapiniere shop and water it every day its back in the house in a tub. Make sure you have a large dish under the tub to collect accidental water spillage.
I get mine from 'Les Jardins de Casimir' in Bergerac, which is a sheltered gardening business providing horticultural training & work in a supportive environment for adults with a range of disabilities. The trees are always lovely, though they aren't necessarily any cheaper than anywhere else I'd rather buy from them than elsewhere. For anyone interested & near enough they are on the Monbazillac side of Bergerac, in the industrial zone opposite the Renault Utilitaires garage, on the Monbazillac side of the bypass.
