Here is an interesting concept, the rented Christmas Tree. Dwell Magazine, (one of my favorite reads) had an article on Seattle based company One Earth One Designs Living Christmas Tree Service. Basically you rent a living Christmas tree that is delivered to your door between December 17^th to the 21^st. Going along with the Eco theme of the company they are native trees like Western red cedar, White fir, and Douglas fir. After Christmas, according to Dwell “Once the holidays end, the same folks will pick the tree up again. All you have to do is decide whether you want it planted in your yard or donated to EarthCorps, a non profit committed to reforestation.”

I like the idea and think it could be expanded to other areas, although I would guess urban areas would be most responsive to this. The only stumbling blocks that I can see are the price, $291 per tree. It may seem like a lot but I would guess there are plenty of urbanites that would love to pay extra for the convenience.

The Dwell article prefaces the story with, “At the holiday season’s end, there’s nothing more depressing than the castaway Christmas trees rotting in our streets.” Of course there is no reason for this as the cut trees could be mulched and used in the garden. In addition we talked about the benefits of cut tree farms in reducing urban sprawl. Never the less having lived in The City I know most urbanites just don't know a lot about the natural world and mulching as well as planting a living tree is beyond their skills or interest.

It would appear that this isn't the first time this has been done.