Traipsing out to a Christmas tree farm to find the perfect specimen to decorate is a time-honored tradition for many people. However, it can turn into quite the time commitment just when our holiday to-do lists already seem endless. If you want a real Christmas tree but would rather skip driving a long way, braving the cold and crowds, loading up a heavy tree, and hauling it back home, there are now several options for ordering one online. Some even include free shipping! Then you can get right to the tree-trimming and merry-making with a lot less hassle—and we promise, Santa won't mind.
Michael Garland
Last year, Amazon announced that it would start offering real, fresh Christmas trees to order among its millions of other items. It will be offering a few again this year, and other major retailers have hopped on the idea’s popularity and will now ship a live evergreen to your door, too. Some smaller, family-owned Christmas tree farms also offer delivery. So if you'd prefer to shop from the comfort of your home, here’s where you can order a real Christmas tree online this year.
Courtesy of Amazon
Amazon is Selling Classic Christmas Trees
Of course, the online retail giant known for stocking absolutely everything has fresh Christmas trees, though you’ll have to dig a bit to find them. Most of the fresh-cut Christmas tree listings on the site are new and don’t have any reviews, so they tend to appear after a bunch of highly-rated artificial trees. We found a few different options to choose from—you can snag a cute 3-foot Fraser fir tabletop tree, a 6-foot Fraser fir, or a 7-foot Basalm fir. The Fraser fir, shipped from a farm in northern Michigan, will cost you about $110, which is a little less than you’ll find from some other online retailers. All of Amazon’s full-size fresh trees will ship for free, even if you’re not a member of Amazon Prime, but don’t expect two-day delivery. It seems like an Amazon tree will take about a week to ship, and comes from fresh-cut from the farm.
Buy It: Real Fresh Cut Fraser Fir Christmas Tree, $109.99, Amazon
Courtesy of The Home Depot
The Home Depot Stocks Most Christmas Tree Varieties
The Home Depot’s real tree selection includes nearly 30 different types, heights, and prices to choose from. You can find classic Douglas and Fraser firs, along with Scotch pines, blue spruce, and noble firs, too. The Home Depot’s fresh trees are a little less expensive than other online retailers—a 5- to 6-foot Douglas fir costs about $100, and a Fraser fir of the same size is an even $90. All of its real Christmas trees include free delivery, too, though they’re freshly cut and shipped from Oregon, so you’ll need to allow at least a week for yours to arrive.
Buy It: Freshly Cut Douglas Fir Live Christmas Tree, $100, The Home Depot
Lowe's Has the Best Christmas Trees for High Ceilings
Lowe’s has a slimmer selection in terms of the types of trees it offers, with mostly Fraser and Douglas firs available, and some Scotch pines and noble firs in the mix. You can pick out a modest 3-footer or a towering 12-foot Christmas tree that’ll take over your living room, and anything in between. The pricing is affordable—a 5- to 6-foot Douglas fir runs about $40, and the most expensive tree, a 10-to-12-foot Fraser fir, rings up at just $169. However, getting them delivered will cost you.
Related: The Worst Time of Year to Buy a Christmas Tree—And When to Buy Instead
Adding a tree to your online cart will tack on an estimated $59 delivery fee, no matter the size. Instead of third-party delivery services, Lowe's only offers truck delivery from your local store (which is usually used for dropping off appliances and furniture). Though it's more expensive, it’s possible that you could get your tree quicker—depending on the availability of trucks and delivery crews in your area, you could be decorating your real tree in just a few days from the time of ordering.
Courtesy of Walmart
Walmart Offers Free, Speedy Shipping
If you want a traditional, fresh Christmas tree, Walmart will deliver one to your door for free. So far, it's only got one option to choose from—a 6-foot Fraser fir. These real trees are offered through a partnership with Hallmark, and are cut and shipped from family-owned U.S. farms. They cost about $120 each, but shipping is free. According to Walmart's website, it should take a day or two to process your order, and then your tree will arrive in two to five days, depending on your location.
Buy It: Real Fresh-Cut Fraser Fir Christmas Tree, $119.90, Walmart
Courtesy of Wayfair
Wayfair Has Lots of Christmas Tree Sizes
Yep, the popular furniture site is delivering live Christmas trees this holiday season (and they’re on sale right now, too). You can browse through a good selection of trees and sizes—Fraser firs, spruces, and balsam firs, in sizes as small as 1-1/2 feet tall up to 7 feet (their 8- and 9-foot live trees are currently out of stock). Wayfair offers free shipping on orders over $49, and most of its trees are priced above that threshold, so you shouldn’t have to pay for delivery unless you’re ordering a mini tree for a tabletop.
A 6-foot Fraser fir from Wayfair costs about $123, so its prices are comparable to other online delivery options. Some of its trees also list exactly which farms they come from (like Blue Ridge Christmas Trees), though others don’t, so be sure to double-check the listing if the source of your Christmas tree is important to you. It looks like you can expect to wait about a week for your order to show up on your porch.
Buy It: Fresh Cut Live Green Fir Christmas Tree, $114.99, Wayfair
Family-Owned Christmas Tree Farms
Many Christmas tree farms offer shipping and delivery, so if you want to know exactly where your tree is coming from, you can go that route. Websites like Christmas Farms, A Tree to Your Door, and Walddie Christmas Trees all allow you to pick out your tree online, then get it shipped to your door. Since they’re usually shipped through FedEx and UPS, don’t expect free delivery—we tried adding a few to our carts, and delivery fees ranged from at least $60 to up over $100. Still, Christmas tree farms often have a wider selection of types and sizes available, so if you’re on the hunt for something that the big box stores don’t carry, it can be worth checking out their stock.
Related: How to Pick the Best Christmas Tree Ever
While you can get fresh evergreens delivered most places in the U.S., some of the sites we checked won’t ship them to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands, so just make sure your state isn’t excluded before placing your order. Plus, a few states require shipping permits for Christmas trees (like Arizona, California, and Delaware), but that’s usually taken care of on the grower’s end, so you shouldn’t have to worry about it.
As with any real Christmas tree, even delivered ones, make sure to get your tree in water as soon as possible. First, saw an inch off the base of the trunk to remove any sap that may have sealed over the previous cut. Then place it into your stand and fill the basin with water. Fresh trees usually have their branches tied close to the trunk while being transported, so after you cut away the cords, give your tree a day or two to settle in before you start decorating. By then, the branches will have returned to their natural position.
Buy It: Krinner Tree Genie Deluxe Christmas Tree Stand, $75.85, Amazon
If you're planning to deck your halls with a beautiful, fresh tree this year, go ahead and order one up online this year along with your other holiday shopping. You may pay a little more than you might for one you'd have to pick up at a tree lot or farm, but if you ask us, the extra cost is well worth the convenience of not having to transport it yourself. And you can consider it an early gift to yourself not to have to clean tree needles and sap off your car.
