Instead of cheap goods – red-white-red Christmas trees shine longer during the holidays

“It’s always Christmas for us. Because we have to pay great attention all year round to what makes people happy at the festival. That is why we have mowed, regulated, felled and sawed, so that the most famous of all trees can make its grand appearance again this year,” assures Josef Reithner, chairman of the manufacturers of blue-yellow Christmas trees and decorative undergrowth.

He doesn’t have to go far for a local inspection! Because Reithner comes from the classic Austrian Christmas tree community of Maria Laach, high above the banks of the Danube in Lower Austria. There, as in all other growing areas in the home country, the growers are about to start this year’s season. The order of the day there in the forest: select the most beautiful trees for the festival and prepare them for sale.

Nordmann is a classic, threatened by cheap goods
The pine trees of the Nordmann variety (named after Alexander von Nordmann, who discovered this tree species during an expedition on behalf of the Russian Tsar in the Caucasus) will soon be cut down, netted and transported to the sales points. What makes hearts beat faster: The weather was particularly favorable for the Christmas tree harvest this year, so the needles were of the best quality.

Pine trees, the classics for sparkling candle ambiance, are particularly resistant to drought and storms. “Their taproots reach up to three meters deep into the ground and can spread horizontally up to twenty meters further. This means that even in dry times they still have access to water and nutrients,” says Georg Schöppl, boss of the Federal Forestry Department, who relies on these protégés in the state reserves for precisely this reason.

If you want to be safe when it comes to climate protection when choosing a tree for the peace festival, pay attention to regional origin loops when purchasing a tree. “This not only brings a safe and controlled origin to your home, but is also an example for the environment,” calls on Minister of Agriculture Norbert Totschnig. A maxim that should also be taken to heart with Advent wreaths. However, you should avoid cheap goods from abroad as they usually start to spoil on Christmas Eve.

Eco-pioneers provide natural needles
The Nordmann spruce trees of the organic farmer Hans Reisenbauer from Thomasberg are left completely to nature in a particularly unspoilt corner of the Buckligen Welt (Lower Austria). “That’s a good thing. Because that makes my protégés so strong and green that they keep their needles long after Christmas Eve,” assures the grower, who avoids chemical control of harmful insects such as gall mites in his crops because the Advent green is so robust against wind and weather.

But English Shropshire sheep are also increasingly used as an ecological weedkiller in domestic crops. By grazing they keep the grass short. All ‘arms’ of the Christmas trees – including the lower rows of branches – get equal access to light and can develop nicely straight like a rod, free of obstacles. If this care is lacking, the spruces and firs ‘rebell’ – because nature has no other option, they strive for the light irregularly or asymmetrically.

On the ground, rows of dry branches catch the eye. “They are our woolly allies,” says the incredibly climate-friendly farming couple Christian and Marianne Pabinger from Mittergöming in Salzburg. The Carinthian silver firs of the Unterkofler family in Mooswald also rise into the sky as eco beacons. The use of pesticides has been completely avoided there for half a century.

The grandsons Raphael and Ralf and their father Georg now consistently continue this grandfather’s legacy. What is touching: in these cultures everyone can choose the natural tree they want and cut it down themselves if they wish.