When I was a child we had a real tree at Christmas. Then I left home and my mum bought me an artificial tree. That tree is now in our attic; yes, 20 years later it is still going strong, but it isn’t a ‘proper’ tree. I longed for a real tree to make Christmas feel perfect, especially now Baby is getting older and is more aware of what’s going on.
Pines and Needles offered to send us a real tree for our living room and a little miniature ones for Baby too. The company was set up by two brothers in 1995. Then aged 15 and 13, the brothers came up with the idea of loading a horse box with Christmas trees from their family farm in Scotland and driving to London to sell them. Pines and Needles now have over 20 stores around London and the south of England and their delivery drivers still deliver your tree in a kilt!
As soon as Baby was packed off to bed, Mr Hubby got to work putting the tree up and having his first go (since he was a kid) at decorating. We need a few more lights as our artificial one was tiny in comparison. The tree comes with a base that screws into the trunk, which you then fill with water to make it even sturdier.
Our decorations are an eclectic mix, we have quite a few that are sentimental and I do prefer it to a more co-ordinated tree. Each year Baby gets to pick a new decoration to add to the tree as part of her advent activities, so something else will be added in the next few days.
On 1st December when Baby went downstairs, she opened the living room door to be greeted by this wonderful tree. Sorry these images aren’t great, but the light was an issue and I wanted to see her reaction rather than spending time setting up a good shot. She couldn’t stop jumping up and down, saying ‘my tree, my tree’.
The tree is gorgeous and it is so much better than an artificial one, there is just no comparison.
Pines and Needles are carbon positive for most of the year and their trees come from sustainable forests in Britain, so less air miles too!
Those of you who are London based, your tree will be delivered by men in kilts wearing Santa hats. For a small charge they can also install and decorate your tree. For non Londoners your tree will be delivered by courier.
Baby’s tiny tree!
Pines and Needles also sell decorations and lights. You can check them out on Facebook and Twitter too.
We would definitely NEVER go back to our artificial tree again.
Disclosure: We were sent this tree in return for an honest review.
Comments 2
Oh I love it! I’ll never be able to go back to a fake one again either!!! x
It looks beautiful! I love the mix of ornaments. We have a miniature tree for my toddler too which he loved decorating and still takes ornaments off the big tree to add to his.