Xmass Trees and Wood Stoves

[mainemac]

I know crazy random thought in the middle of summer but am looking forward to cold weather and wood burning time
I have a smallish house and Xmass Tree has always been in the living room 11 x 19 feet
Installed the wood stove insert in the LR and am now nervous about a tinder box so close to the stove?
It would be about 8 feet away

No I do not do Plastic Trees

What do you guys who have been burning for years do?

Tom

 

[fossil]

What's the reqirement for clearance to combustibles in front of your insert? If it's more than 8', then you've got a problem. (Possibly more than one.) Rick

 

[BrotherBart]

My guess is a brown Christmas tree (enough of this Xmas crap already) in about ten days. No actual testing because I will never put one in the same room with a stove to find out.

I have set Christmas trees on fire before. I am convinced that they are not used as gasoline just because they won't fit in the tank.

 

[dsil]

Put the real tree in another room POOF!!

 

[jeff6443]

We only do real big trees . in the fla room 12 foot ceiling . back of the house . this is my first year w wood stove .My mom said put the tree in the living roon . My liveing room is 12x 21 . I told her too small. and dineing room is the same size . Then mom say get a fake tree less work . I m 44 never had a fake one . Its something my boys and daugther do .get the tree .GD is three now she gets to help pick it out . I think 8 feet is plenty keep it watered .but mines in the back. Less crowded with ALL THE PRESENTS SANTA GIVES ME . I cant wait till winter newby JM PS yes I burned trees before . I wish they would go in the tank POOF
Hot and fast , Yep he'll burn your house down

 

[sinnian]

lol - I just put a 50 inch lcd where I normally put my tree, but did not even think about it until I read this thread. I suppose I could put still put it there for the season, OR get a really nice picture of a decorated xmas tree off the net, and hook up my laptop to the lcd. At least I wouldn't have to worry about keeping it watered ;-P

 

[acesover]

you should also worry about if the tree falls over not just the distance to the tree. this year were going to make room for the tree in the dinning room i wouldnt want it any where near the stove.

 

[cmonSTART]

We've always had our tree in the same room as the stove, about 8 feet away. We've never had an issue with it.

 

[fossil]

I guess maybe I'll put my tree outside this year. Prob'ly should move all the furniture out there too, just to be safe. %-P Rick

 

[myzamboni]

We have a 2 ft fake tree that sits on an end table. 5 minutes to setup with decorations (tree is already pre-fit with lights). If I'm going to spend time cutting a tree, it damn well better be for burning.

 

[Redox]

Our tree comes out of the attic and goes right in front of the never used fireplace. It hasn't dropped a needle yet! I gave up on real trees a few years ago and haven't looked back. They never fall over, need water and disposal means throwing it back in the box and stuffing it back in the attic! Our last real tree resembled a tumbleweed after we got it out the door. After decorating the faux tree with about 2000 lights and a hundred pounds of decorations, it's hard to tell the difference!

Anyone catch the Mythbusters episode with the lights on the Xmas tree? Something like 25kw on an 8' tree to get it to burn, IIRC. I gotta go burn something now...

Chris

 

[jebatty]

I guess maybe I’ll put my tree outside this year.

We have 3 beautiful spruce growing in front of our house, and we have decorated one of those as our Christmas tree these last three years, and will continue to do so. In addition to all other reasons, it's now easy for friends and strangers to drop off their gifts! Plus, saves about $50 every year.

 

[WILDSOURDOUGH]

I'm with MyZammboni- 2ft, pre lit- no muss, no fuss !
Dry, lit on fire christmas trees make wonderful signeling torches- can be seen for many miles- but don't need that in my house.
Besides the 'eco' thing...why cut em down just to see them in the house for a week or so.
We do make some real 'boughs' to hang around- look and smell nice.
Trees on the inside of the stove- yes, trees on the outside ot the stove...no.

 

[Tfin]

Never had a fake tree......and never will.

Our tree goes in the same room as the stove, and is about 10-12 feet away. Just always make sure to keep water in the base, and the tree far enough away that IF it fell, it wouldn't hit the stove.

I'd also recomend not having the tree up for any more than 3 weeks, and cut a fresh one yourself if possible.

 

[firefighterjake]

Ah, Christmas trees . . . my favorite topic . . . but not for the reason you may think.

Like every other firefighter out there I had heard about the dangers of Christmas trees burning up and early on in my career as a Fire Prevention Officer I was asked by a local TV station to speak about these "living" Roman candles that we bring into our homes each year. This particular reporter wanted to do a live on-air fire with the Christmas tree fully involved. I agreed. Now I did know enough to realize that the real danger is with a dry Christmas tree so I told the reporter to get a tree and leave it out of water for a week or two. On the day of the on-air shooting/fire I learned just a few hours before that the reporter had a tree, but had not left it unwatered. To make a long story short on live TV I attempted to light a tree on fire with a hand-held propane plumber's torch . . . and the well watered tree would fizzle a bit, light up for a second or two, but as soon as I pulled the flame away the fire would splutter out . . . so much for the dramatic, six foot of flames that we had all seen in other videos! I ended up quickly changing things up a bit by explaining how a well watered Christmas tree is very difficult to catch on fire. I cannot tell you how badly I was ribbed by fellow firefighters for this gaffe . . . and even today folks still remember this incident.

Fast forward to 2006. I had just wrote my usual holiday safety article and had specifically mentioned how well watered Christmas trees are pretty difficult to catch on fire . . . and added that in fact when these trees do catch on fire it is almost always malfunctioning lights. Well, turns out the President of the National Christmas Tree Association saw this article and as a result I was invited to work with the group to produce a PSA on Christmas tree safety.

Fast forward to 2007. I was at a world-wide safety conference and exposition put on by the National Fire Protection Association in Boston when my co-worker (a Fire Inspector) casually mentioned that the firefighter being shown on a large plasma screen TV at one of the expo booths looked a lot like me -- turned out it was me . . . larger than life.

So . . . some facts . . . Christmas trees only account for something like 1/10th of 1% of all fires -- you are much, much more likely to have a fire while cooking, with your heating equipment or with an electrical problem. A well-watered Christmas tree is really, really difficult to set on fire. I really have no issues with Christmas trees.

That said . . . if I had a fresh cut tree in my house (and I often do -- except the past few years I have been lazy and simply decorated an outside fir tree growing in my front yard) I would place it a fair distance from my woodstove as it can dry it out and if for some reason it tips over and lands directly on to the stove it could be an issue. I would also make sure I keep the tree well watered. Finally, I would make sure to take the time to check out the condition of the Christmas lights before stringing them around the tree.

Finally, for a great and pretty funny video check out the NCTA website's Jay Leno clip.

(broken link removed to http://www.christmastree.org/safety.cfm)

 

[Jags]

I refuse to talk about Christmas trees in August.

 

[The Dali Lima]

I don't know if you have young children, but I'd keep the Christmas tree and any other item that might fall over in a another room. That is my plan come this season.

I just thought about the fact that I could burn the tree this year! How many times have I dropped off the tree at the dump in the past!?

Hmmm... given that the wood dries out in the house I imagine you could burn right away, huh?

 

[firefighterjake]

the new lights use less electricity & produce less heat than the old ones & by quite a bit , i think.

Anyone that grew up in the 1970s or earlier probably remembers the old Christmas light bulbs . . . heck you didn't even need a woodstove to keep warm back then . . . just light up the Christmas tree and stand close to it and you would get warm from those lights.

I suspect those old lights that burned a lot hotter may have been one reason for the fear of Christmas trees catching on fire.

 

[billb3]

No way would I have a christmas tree that close to a stove.
Or not have any fires in the stove while it was there.

Have had too many trees go over from cats, dogs, kids, and/or ghosts.

 

[RedRanger]

Our 7` xmas tree has never caught fire once and we have had the same one for more than 35 years. :lol:

 

[Backwoods Savage]

We always cut our own Christmas tree off our own place. We also always put the tree in the same room as the stove! We do take precautions to make sure the tree is steady and not ready to tip over with the first bump.

To help keep those REAL CHRISTMAS TREES green longer, put sugar in the water. We usually have our trees up from 4-5 weeks and have not had any problems.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Geez, guys, in my entire life, I have never had a Christmas tree that we didn't tie some picture wire to the top of it and tie the other end to a screw or hook overhead. Unless you've got a cathedral ceiling and literally no place to put the tree that has some kind of overhead beam or something, there's no reason to have a tree fall over ever. In a pinch, you can run a wire from the top of the tree to a hook in the wall and at least it won't tip very far if it does go over.

Maybe it's because I've lived with cats all my life...

 

[Tfin]

To help keep those REAL CHRISTMAS TREES green longer, put sugar in the water.

I used to do that but then heard it doesn't really help. Any evidence/info that it does?

 

[Poult]

Geez, guys, in my entire life, I have never had a Christmas tree that we didn't tie some picture wire to the top of it and tie the other end to a screw or hook overhead. Unless you've got a cathedral ceiling and literally no place to put the tree that has some kind of overhead beam or something, there's no reason to have a tree fall over ever. In a pinch, you can run a wire from the top of the tree to a hook in the wall and at least it won't tip very far if it does go over.

Maybe it's because I've lived with cats all my life...

Could be! The only time I've had a tipping Christmas tree was when a distant neighbor's 9 month old Black Lab puppy discovered my four (large) dogs and the dog door to this house. I came home late one afternoon to find all five of them tearing around inside the house, and the Christmas tree leaning pretty good. Dogs were having all kinds of fun, though . . .

I remember the older tree lights that ran hotter. They used to heat the needles enough so the tree would perfume the house nicely when the lights were lit. I think the idea of house fires from Christmas trees stems from the days they used candles, though. I remember my father telling me about admiring the lighted Christmas tree with the bucket of water sitting right beside his father's chair, just in case one of the candle ignited something.

Poult

 

[backpack09]

Growing up, my father always had a 15' tree in our living room with the Big Bulbs, and the Resolute smoking away in the opposite corner of the room (he's still doing this 20 years later). I do the same, just with a smaller tree and less smoke. Christmas with a fake tree is for old farts or hypochondriacs.