Once holidays are over, give your Christmas tree a ‘second life’

Once the holidays are over, it's time to take the real tree out of the house before it turns into a fire hazard.

While many municipalities have recycling programs in place, what happens if you miss the pickup?

You can actually give the tree a "second life" and let it return to nature, according to Dan Kraus, the senior conservation biologist at the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

If you have a backyard, trim off the branches and place them on the ground where they will decompose into soil, leaving the trunk to provide a habitat for the woodland creatures.

Hit up Pinterest for some home decor idea that you can create using the tree.

Or drive it to the forest and leave there, says Marie-Paule Godin, operations manager at Tree Canada.

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