Keeping your live Christmas tree fresh | Business

Christmas is about a month away - if you bought a live Christmas tree, you may be wondering how to keep it fresh for weeks. Fresh trees are hitting businesses all over the Mid South including Big Jim's Christmas trees, with one location being at the corner of Cooper and Union in Midtown. Experts say a tree will last longer if you skip the middleman.  

"Try to buy from somebody who, like me, buys straight from the farm that way it's going to give you a fresher tree.  A lot of your big box stores they've had theirs already probably two or three weeks and they were probably cut a month or so ago," said owner Jimmy Wade.  

Here are some tips from Wade:

• Fraziers and Nobles hold onto their needles longer
• Make sure the tree trunk is freshly cut and water it with warm water.
• Don't wait until your tree stand is bone dry to water the tree, sap will seal off the bottom and make it harder for your tree to drink

Jimmy Wade started his business 32 years ago at his Egypt Baptist church in Raleigh and sold Christmas trees there for three years. He expanded to other locations and added pumpkins in the mix 16 years ago.  

Now, there are four locations of Big Jim’s Christmas tree lots every season which runs from the beginning of September to Christmas. Wade said he used to run eight locations, but it was too much to handle.  “It’s the funnest, hardest work,” said Wade.  

Read more about how Big Jim's Christmas Tree brings families together every year in this article.