This is a guest post by Field Correspondent Molly Cleveland.

How many of you went out to get a Christmas Tree this year? I’ll guess probably 100% of  you, but if you think about it, it’s pretty wasteful for us to cut down perfectly good trees to  put up in our houses for a month, and then throw them into our backyards when were  done with them. I read this Christmas Story when I was younger, that was called “The After Christmas Tree.”  The family in the story didn’t want to get rid of their tree after Christmas, so they “reused” it. They decorated the tree with pinecones dipped in peanut butter and then rolled in bird seed, cranberries, popcorn, and lights. After the tree was decorated they set it up outside for all of the birds, squirrels, chipmunks, etc to come and enjoy their “After Christmas Tree.” They kept it up for weeks after, until the tree finally died. If we all found creative ways to “reuse” our Christmas Trees, then maybe it wouldn’t be so wasteful to cut down a tree, just for a month.

Materials To Make “The After Christmas Tree.”
Pinecones
Bird Seed
Melted Peanut Butter
Cranberries
Popcorn
String
Newspaper, or paper bags to lay down because this project WILL get messy.