Goat Christmas Tree Recycling

Our girls really object to taking down our Christmas tree.  It's the starkest reminder that Christmas is over--a fact they and most other children have a hard time swallowing.  I am usually ready to take down the tree on December 26th, but that always feels a little harsh.  So we generally leave the tree up until New Year's Eve, and then amidst the complaints of our children, we begin the undecorating process.

As much as I love getting our tree and decorating it, I am equally happy when it comes time to take it outside and put Christmas away for another year.  Our house feels emptier when it is gone, but in a very good way.

Once we've taken off the ornaments and lights, the question becomes what to do with the Christmas tree?  Easily answered since we've had the goats:  it gets recycled in the form of their favorite New Year's treat.  Goats love evergreens!  Our neighbors are catching on to this and we now have plenty of donations for this feeding frenzy.  Last year they ate five Christmas trees!  They have a nice talent for turning once lush green branches into Christmas tree carcasses--eating all of the needles and then stripping off the bark.

They are working away on our tree right now, having gotten up early to get started.  Hay is very uninteresting to them when they have a Christmas tree in their yard.  I have a couple of trees from neighbors sitting in the nearby woods, waiting in the wings if you will.  We try and ration their trees, giving them one at a time.

The best part of our goat Christmas tree recycling program, is how amazing the goats smell!  Not only do they eat the tree, but they climb on it and rub up against it.  They literally infuse their fur with the scent of evergreen.  Silver came over to the fence to me last night and hopped up, hoping for a nice scratch between his ears.  His fur smelled of fir, and his breath was as sweetly scented as the first day we brought the tree into our house.  For the next month while the goats dispatch tree after tree, I will get to smell Christmas every time I go out to the barn.