To keep it fresh: Water it this way

Give your tree warm water, advises Bob Pranga, aka Dr. Christmas. The reason: After a pine is cut, the sap starts to coagulate, making it difficult for water to move up into the needles. But a constant source of warm water keeps the sap soft and opens the veins of the tree, so water can be taken up to all the branches. And the needles themselves can actually absorb a bit of water, so just use a spray bottle to give the branches a daily spritz—tree lots do this to their stock regularly! Also smart: Consider white twinklers. Researchers at the Tree Research Centre in Nova Scotia found that white LEDs helped trees retain their needles a whopping 30 to 35 days longer. That’s because white light is closest to the natural spectrum and LEDs emit less heat than incandescents.