Advanced options
Real tree prices swing by height and type: the needle-holding Nordmann fir costs more than a Norway spruce, and prices drop sharply the week before Christmas (a gamble with the good ones). Potted-with-roots trees can be replanted and reused: the only tree that gets cheaper every year. Check January collection: most councils shred real trees free.
What The Christmas Tree Cost Calculator Works Out
- Artificial breaks even after: the artificial tree's price divided by the yearly real tree price, rounded up to whole Christmases. Real trees run GBP 40 to GBP 90 by height and species (the needle-fast Nordmann fir commands a premium over the shedding Norway spruce); serviceable artificial trees GBP 50 to GBP 150, so the break-even is usually one to three Christmases.
- Cost over the period: real tree price x years kept against the one-off artificial price, with the saving either way. A decade's loyalty to a decent fake saves several hundred pounds.
- The carbon asterisk: the Carbon Trust puts a two-metre artificial tree at about 40kg CO2e and a real tree at 3.5kg to 16kg depending on disposal, so the artificial needs 7 to 10 Christmases to pull ahead, and only if it is actually kept that long.
- Real tree price rise and extras (advanced): trees have risen faster than inflation in recent years; add a yearly percentage, plus stand hire, delivery or paid disposal per year. The year-by-year table shows when the cumulative lines cross.
- Artificial one-off extras (advanced): a storage bag or box and a set of replacement lights for a pre-lit model, which adds convenience and a single point of failure in one purchase.
- Cost per Christmas (advanced): each option's total divided by the years, the fairest single comparison when the artificial is kept a long time.
- Second-hand artificial (advanced): January listings are full of artificial trees at GBP 10 to GBP 30. The card shows the saving against both other options and how quickly it pays back; its embodied carbon is already spent, so it beats everything from day one.
- Carbon break-even and carbon over the period (advanced): the artificial footprint divided by the real tree's yearly figure (3.5kg if chipped, burned or council shredded; 16kg if landfilled, where it rots to methane), and the totals over your period. Most councils shred real trees free in January.
Carbon comparison: Carbon Trust.