Photo: Paul McKinnon (Shutterstock)
If you celebrate Christmas, you probably have a decorated tree set up somewhere in your house. As a kid, the tree in my house was a dusty old artificial model that had to be assembled branch by branch. We always kept it in the basement, stuffed into a cardboard box, and every holiday season, unboxing it was a game of Spider Or Not?
At some point my parents decided a real, live tree would be a more dignified option (which changed our annual game to one of Squirrel Family or Not?), and thus began our tradition of standing around various parking lots while gruff men cheerfully sold us what appeared to my young eyes to be a random pine tree.
But these trees weren’t random! And nor should they be: You actually have a surprisingly wide range of tree species to choose from for the centerpiece of your holiday decorating. If you’re in the market for a real Christmas tree this year, here are the 15 best types—and why you would choose each one over all the other trees in the lot.
