There's nothing like a fresh Christmas tree.  It adds the scent of the holidays to your home!  But a real Christmas tree can be messy and even dangerous as they dry out... so what's the best way to keep your new Christmas tree fresh and green? 

There must be at least a hundred "formulas" out there for keeping a Christmas tree fresh.  You've probably heard of at least one of the following folk remedies:

• Put an aspirin in the Christmas tree's water.
• Put corn syrup, Coke or 7UP in the Christmas tree water.
• Put bleach in the Christmas tree water.
• Use vitamin B-12 or Viagra in your Christmas tree's water.
• Put lemon juice, vinegar or whiskey in the tree's water.
• Drill holes around the bottom of the tree to allow in more water, and possibly fill those holes with cotton balls.

With each suggestion, there's usually a recipe or formula recommended for the amount to add to the Christmas Tree reservoir.

Mythbusters tested many of these different suggestions and they found that nothing added to the water helped retain the Christmas tree's needles or color more than plain water and many of them made the tree look sickly faster.

Water is all you need!

A cut Christmas tree is no longer growing and does not need additional nutrients like sugar or vitamins. The trick is to never let the water run out- once the base has coated over with resin, it won't take in any more water no matter what you do and will die rapidly.

A simple way to help your tree stay watered is to place a bucket of water next to the tree and run plastic tubing from the bottom of the bucket to the bottom of the tree reservoir.  You'll have to start a siphon going (usually by sucking all of the air out of the tube until water runs out from your bucket, then quickly placing the tube in the reservoir.)  You'll be able to see the water level in your tree reservoir because it will match the water level in the bucket!  Just fill the bucket as needed, making sure the water in the bucket isn't any higher than the top of your reservoir, or you'll get water spilling out over the top.  The two containers will try to equalize to the same levels.

You can place the bucket inside of a wrapped box to hide it- just wrap the lid separate from the box so that you can lift it off and check the water level daily.

Trees you cut yourself will be the freshest and last longest- trees at tree lots and home improvement stores may have been cut up to 3 weeks ago and have been drying out ever since.   Look for flexible needles and good color when  you buy your tree and shake it a little- too many falling needles indicates an overdry tree, although all will have some needle drop.

Be sure to keep kids and pets away from your watering system to prevent a mess!